Christy O'Connor: Limerick driven by a fear that Cork can take over

Irish Examiner

16-05-2025

Limerick looking to harness the hurt
At the end of the Cork-Limerick All-Ireland semi-final last July, as the Cork players celebrated together with The Frank and Walters' classic 'After All' booming out around Croke Park, the Limerick players were gathered in separate groups around the pitch, gazing blankly at a completely unfamiliar setting, scenes that they were normally part of, but suddenly weren't.
Players hugged each other. Softly spoken words were exchanged. For what appeared like an age, the Limerick players didn't seem to know what to do next before finally moving together in unison, gathering in a group close to the Hogan Stand, before applauding their supporters still in the ground.
The players looked almost concussed in the moment but there was bound to be a concussive element to whenever Limerick's incredible winning run was halted. The shock factor was all the greater again when Limerick's shot at five-in-a-row immortality had suddenly slipped through their grasp.
How do you forget that painful memory? You don't. In his autobiography, Jackie Tyrrell wrote about how deep the cut of losing the five-in-a-row to Tipperary in 2010 still felt the following year. Kilkenny never liked Tipperary anyway but the memory of losing that final drove them crazy in 2011.
'We were agitated,' wrote Tyrrell. 'We were completely pissed off. A lot of that frustration may have had nothing to do with Tipperary but we dialled it up to ensure that we always believed it had. I was nearly so paranoid that winter that I'd have blamed Tipperary for starting the Great Famine.'
Much of that paranoia stemmed from a deep-seated fear, within Tyrrell anyway, of Tipp having the potential to beat Kilkenny again. And how another defeat could open up a potential apocalyptic vista of the future.
'Tipp had the capacity to take over,' wrote Tyrrell. 'If they did, we believed it would have detracted from what we had achieved as a team, that it would have completely diluted our achievements. We felt (before the 2011 All-Ireland final against Tipp) that we were playing for more than just that All-Ireland. Our heritage, our modern legacy, was all on the line.'
There has been a similar theme around this championship, and Cork's projected future dominance. Cork have the capacity to take over. Yet Limerick also firmly believe, like Kilkenny did in 2011, that they can derail that train.
That Kilkenny team often traded on fury and anger and perceived grievances to fuel the machine and turn into a wrecking ball to lay waste to all before them.
This Limerick side are different. Unleashing fury is an essential part of this group's collective personality, but everything they stand for is reflected in their mentality; controlled, deliberate, clinical, cold, temperate.
The process guides their path, but the process will set the temperature gauge slightly different for Limerick now than it would have for Kilkenny in 2011.
Kilkenny were meeting Tipperary in an All-Ireland final, 12 months after the same team had stopped them from achieving the five-in-a-row in an All-Ireland final.
Sunday's Cork-Limerick game is a monumental event but it may yet be the first of three clashes between the two sides in this championship. In that sense, this match doesn't carry the same risk and trepidation bound up in that 2011 final for both Kilkenny and Tipperary.
The other key difference between the context of what Tipp did back then and what Cork did last year (stopping a team winning the five-in-a-row) is that Tipp's victory secured a precious first All-Ireland in nine years. All Cork's win guaranteed was a place in an All-Ireland final, which they lost to Clare in heartbreaking circumstances.
After beating Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Croke Park last year, the challenge for Cork now is to win in the Gaelic Grounds. Another victory would imbue Cork with even more confidence in believing that they have Limerick's number. As well as getting into Limerick's psyche, a third successive win would also prove that Cork are primed to win an All-Ireland.
Yet Cork still have to go and win that All-Ireland. And Limerick are hell-bent on, not only winning another All-Ireland, but on making sure that Cork don't lift the Liam MacCarthy – especially when they appreciate how much that could prove to be a springboard for future Cork dominance.
Cox back on familiar territory
When Billy Morgan and Tomás Ó Sé were working together with the UCC Sigerson Cup team a few years back, Morgan told Ó Sé that he couldn't understand why one of the UCC players, Conor Cox, wasn't involved with Kerry.
Having played with Cox for a period in 2013, Ó Sé felt that Cox's talent was never in doubt but that he fell victim to the raft of forwards coming off the Kerry underage production line. Ó Sé also believed that a decision to go travelling in 2014 put Cox on the back foot.
'If you want to be a Kerry footballer you break your backside trying to get in there,' said Ó Sé. 'And there's always forwards in Kerry. The attitude possibly would be that there are three or four Conor Coxes there.'
Having won three All-Ireland Junior medals with Kerry, starring in the 2017 final against Meath when kicking 1-8, Cox lined out for Kerry seven times in the league before accepting that any chance of an inter-county future lay elsewhere. With his father Martin from Roscommon, Cox transferred to the Connacht county in December 2018 under the 'parentage rule'.
Cox, who last played a senior match for Kerry in the 2016 league, kicked 1-54 in the 2019 league and championship and was absolutely central to Roscommon's Connacht title success that summer.
When Cox spoke to Ó Sé in an interview for Benetti Menswear in 2020, he said he never looked back in anger about going to the US in 2014, which potentially cost him an All-Ireland medal. "I have absolutely no regrets about it,' said Cox.
When asked by Ó Sé if he felt that decision cost him his chance of a future career with Kerry, Cox shrugged his shoulders. "I suppose you can only really ask the management,' said Cox. 'It's fine if that did come against me. You know yourself the standard of footballers in Kerry and the top-class players that are there. Anyway, I'm delighted to be up in Roscommon.'
On Saturday, Cox comes up against Kerry in the championship for the first time. And, like Karl O'Dwyer for Kildare in the 1998 All-Ireland semi-final, it's a chance for Cox to show Kerry what he could have done for his own county.
Tipperary desperate to change home record
When Tipperary beat Limerick in the 2016 Munster semi-final to march into a fourth Munster final in six years, the comprehensive nature of that win also underlined how hard Tipp were to beat in Thurles in the first half of the last decade.
In their previous 11 championship games at the venue, Tipp had only lost once. And that defeat – to Limerick in the 2014 Munster semi-final – was the first time Limerick had beaten Tipp in the championship in Thurles since 1973.
Almost a decade on though, and Tipp's championship record in Semple Stadium has never been as poor. In the 14 games they've played in Thurles since that 2016 Munster semi-final, Tipp have only won four. Only two of those wins have come in the Munster championship, both of which were in 2019, against Waterford and Limerick. And Waterford were all over the place that summer, while Limerick didn't have to win that game.
Some big records have fallen too in that time. In 2018, Clare beat Tipp in the championship in Thurles for the first time in 90 years; Waterford's victory there two years ago was their first ever championship win against Tipp in Semple Stadium.
Having failed to beat Waterford in the championship since that 2019 meeting, and with progress or elimination on the line, a victory has never been more important for Tipperary.
Especially in Thurles.