Cork and Tipperary on an equal footing in first NFL meeting in 20 years

Cork v Tipperary

OPENER for ten – when did Cork last play Tipperary in the national football league?

Given the Cork spent so much of the past decade in Division 1, you’d know that it’s more than a while ago, but it might be a surprise to know that you have to go all the way back to October 1997, and a 4-17 to 3-5 win in Clonmel.

Mark O’Sullivan scored 2-4 for a Cork side that had been dumped out of the Championship by Clare that summer, with Pat Hegarty and Don Davis also getting the goals while then-current U21 star Declan Browne notched 1-2 for Tipp.

The 1997-98 league saw counties divided into four groups, with the placings in each group then used to determine the new Divisions 1A, 1B, 2A and 2B. With Cork finishing second in Group D, a place in Division 1A was their lot for the following year, which would end with eight of the team that started against Tipp taking to the field for the All-Ireland final defeat to Meath.

Tipp, sixth in the group, went into Division 2B and, with the ‘A’ and ‘B’ sides kept apart until the next restructuring in 2007, there was no chance for the counties to meet. When the NFL reverted to the four-division model, it was as Cork were about to push on to challenge for national honours and so Conor Counihan’s side stayed in Division 1 after their 2009 promotion, with Tipp playing in the lower reaches.

Those glory days seem quite distant now and, while Cork

will still

go in as favourites against Tipp on Saturday in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, it’s far from a redhot tag. When they played in the second last inter-county football game in the old Páirc, Tipp threatened for long periods to cause an upset and only a late Cork surge secured a 0-16 to 1-11 win; two years later in Thurles though, there was no stopping the Premier county, who had a famous 3-15 to 2-16.

Any lingering notions that this was just a temporary disruption of the usual state of affairs came last June in Páirc Uí Rinn. Conor Sweeney’s goal put Tipp in front with time almost up but Cork kept their heads and Luke Connolly rounded off a good team move to ensure that victory was achieved, albeit by an even narrower margin than in 2014.

Obviously, there has to be some decoupling of the assessment of league and championship meetings, but Saturday still represents Cork and Tipp meeting on something of an equal footing.

With just two teams to gain promotion, there isn’t that much margin for error – it’s worth remembering that Cork only lost two of their seven games last year, to Kildare and Clare, but also only won two, with three winnable draws proving very costly.

The rule of thumb is that you have to win your home games to have any chance, and with a new management team, a refreshed side and what one would expect will be a large crowd in a new stadium, it’s vital that Cork deliver on Saturday.

The absence of Connolly and Paul Kerrigan due to Nemo Rangers’ commitments does deny them some scoring power but there were some encouraging signs from Stephen Sherlock and Cathal Vaughan in the McGrath Cup, showing that they weren’t afraid to shoot.

Ian Maguire – the captain for the league in Kerrigan’s absence – Mark Collins ( pictured v Tipperary last summer) and John O’Rourke are likely to be the players around whom the new front eight is built and all three will set the tone for the rest to follow.

Who lines up in defence is a difficult question to answer at this remove and it’s something that Ronan McCarthy and his selectors must consider carefully because, bar the injured Philip Austin, Tipp are likely to have a full panel to choose from, with Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney capable of troubling the tightest defences. Last year, Cork played very well at times but too often these high-intensity periods were part of a same-game dichotomy with lacklustre lapses, resulting in Clare being allowed to build up an insurmountable lead or for Meath to come back and draw from nine points down.

Given that Saturday is such an important tone-setter, it’s vital that they play for the whole game. If they do that, then they should win, but that’s not the first time that has been said about Cork.