A Rebel I came, I'm still the same
Ten years ago, when Cork defeated Kilkenny in the All-Ireland quarter-final, a wave of excitement rippled through the hurling world. Ding dong the witch is dead. Kilkenny had shown signs of weakness in the three games prior to that, losing to Dublin before being brought to the brink by Tipperary and Waterford. The fatal blow landed…
The midway point in an unforgiving Munster championship. Two trips to Ennis and Limerick await. No one said it would be easy.
The 2013 All-Ireland Hurling Championship brought excitement and unpredictability, not seen since The 'Revolution Years' of the mid-90's.
It’s said that a flame that burns twice as bright burns for half as long. As it was with Setanta, who for one glorious summer, lit up the hurling world. Then he was gone.
Another year down. Another year no closer to where we want to be.
We are making it up as we go along. But at least we're still going along.
Just another pasting. Just another polemic.
Kieran Kingston said that last Sunday's defeat won't define our season. But unless something drastically improves, it could well define not just this season but this entire, wretched era.
When Cork last tasted national league glory, all of twenty-four years ago, they did so on the back of an eleven-point semi-final victory over Clare. Such was the manner of Clare’s insipid display that day in Thurles, that rumours soon began to reverberate around the watering holes of Munster. The general consensus was that Clare…
Seven weeks ago, in the Munster semi-final, Cork did a lot of things right and Limerick did a lot of things wrong. Yet when all was said and done, eight points still separated the sides. Last weekend, Cork did a lot of things wrong, and Limerick did almost everything right. Do the maths yourself.
There is no logical argument you can make in favour of a Cork win next Sunday. But who needs logic anyhow?
Few would have expected us to have outlasted both Galway and Tipp back in June and even fewer would have expected us to be entering into an All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny with such unabashed confidence. Yet here we are.
Previous iterations would have wilted in the tropical Limerick sun. However, this Cork side is a different animal to that which went before.
While a u-21 All-Ireland title would be welcomed with open arms in Cork, the true success of this crop of hurlers won't become apparent for years to come.
Cork did a lot right. Limerick did a lot wrong. But just doing a lot right was never going to be enough.
In the wake of the leagueiest league that has ever leagued, predictions are an act of folly. The truth is we haven't a clue.
Twenty years ago, a Limerick side that hadn't won a championship game in four years travelled to Cork to face the provincial champions. A culmination of off-field and on-field drama saw the underdogs prevail.
Here we go again. Once more unto the breach, you could say, to give our own tragicomedy its appropriate Shakespearian inflection. One year down the line, twelve months of more stops and starts than the RTÉ player and what have we got to show for ourselves at the end of it all? Nothing but bad haircuts…
30 years ago, the GAA made the seismic decision to allow jersey sponsorship and Cork GAA, in tandem with Barry's Tea, became the commercial trailblazers in a brave new world.
This afternoon, Cork claimed their third BT Young Scientist award in five years. But at what cost?
Is it too early to talk about the next great hurling dynasty? Unfortunately, I don't think it is.
We won the lottery, then died the next day. Just one more massive let-down to add to the list then.
Last Saturday, Cork showed that they are not soft and they're not afraid of hard graft. But they're not in the quarter-finals either.
Cork answered a lot of questions last Saturday. But they’ll have more to answer next Saturday.
Old habits die hard for a Cork team trapped in a perpetual cycle of relapses. Change is needed.
It is not inconceivable that Joe Canning will break Henry Shefflin's all-time championship scoring record this year, 10 years after Shefflin broke Keher's.
Deserted stadia and crowded streets. It's been the strangest of summers.
42 years ago, as Cork GAA tried to alleviate the crippling debt left over from the construction of Páirc Úi Chaoimh, a new club championship format was introduced.
While many different metrics can be used to gauge the competitiveness of the GAA’s club championships, the wealth, or lack of, competition can be ascertained, at least to a certain extent, by examining the spread of finalists in each county.
It may have taken a global health crisis and the complete cessation of sport for three months, but maybe the GAA might emerge from its hibernation with a feasible solution to its perennial fixtures problem. Or at the very least, something vaguely resembling a feasible solution.
Should training sessions involving a limited number of personnel be permitted, it stands to reason that teams at the lowest rung of the GAA ladder, your Junior B’s and Junior C’s of this world, teams with which ‘training in small numbers’ is usually a given, should be the first to dip their toes into the waters of ‘the new normal’.
Ten years ago this month, an old and unfancied Cork team welcomed the All-Ireland runners-up, Tipperary to the Park. Aided by a man mountain at full-forward, it proved to be the last kick from a dying team.
John Horan practically dismissed all hopes of an All-Ireland championship last weekend. What are we going to do with ourselves now?
115 years ago, hostility abounded between two of Cork's most prestigious hurling clubs. Did this bitterness give rise to the espionage which ultimately thwarted Cork's All-Ireland ambitions?
A dual minor All-Ireland winner, at one time Finbarr Delaney was one of the most prolific forwards in Cork hurling.
Even in times so devoid of sporting commentary and parochial discord, comparing Niall McCarthy to D.J. Carey is probably as futile an exercise as can possibly be conceived. Yet here we are.
The epic story of the 1920 Munster Championship is a timely reminder that sport in Ireland has persevered through testing times before. It will return. At some stage.
John Gardiner, Ronan Curran and Sean Og O'hAilpin used once reign supreme. Since their departure, they've proved a tough act to follow.
It may not be the pandemic the GAA wants, but maybe it's the pandemic it needs.
A nation holds it's breath as the sporting calendar grinds to a halt.
Unless this Cork team win an All-Ireland, they will eternally be shackled by connotations surrounding flakiness and timidity. As a player who embodied the old saying about the size of the dog in the fight, the same can never be said about Daniel Kearney.
The Cork hurlers 2020 campaign begins in earnest on Sunday. Grounds for experimenation, integration and rejuvenation. But at the end of the day, it's still only the league.
It’s been an eventful off-season for many of the Championship’s main contenders. Amid the madness, tenuous buds of optimism can be drawn.
75 players have played championship football for Cork this decade. After years of anguish, a revival is finally in sight.
We were back, we were miles off, we were back again, we were years away. Cork's hokey-pokey decade.
Continued excellence against the backdrop of perennial underachievement. Patrick Horgan’s twelve seasons in the Blood and Bandage.
In June 2008, Patrick Horgan, Seamus Callanan, T.J Reid and Joe Canning all made their intercounty debuts. Since then, they have been at the forefront of hurling's golden age of scoring.
Since 2010, 64 players have hurled for Cork in the heat of championship, representing a total of 32 clubs.
Bold Thady Quill 