Cork’s route to ’66 All-Ireland hurling title gives hope

NOBODY would have predicted that the Cork hurlers were destined to endure such a lengthy barren spell after Sean Og O’hAilpin collected the Liam McCarthy Cup in Croke Park in 2005.

That All-Ireland final victory over Galway completed the two-in-arow, but the Rebels’ bid for the treble was thwarted by Kilkenny in the show-piece the following year.

Apart from 2013 when they lost to Clare in a replay, Cork haven’t appeared in a decider since then, and, regardless of how the Coronavirus impacts on this year’s championship, they aren’t especially fancied to end their All-Ireland famine in the near future.

Looking for a reason to be optimistic, however, the hurling fraternity on Leeside could do worse than reflect on how underrated the team was when the last hiatus of over a decade was bridged back in 1966.

Prior to that, Cork hadn’t reached the summit since 1954.

They had gone ten years without winning as much as a provincial title and they had been on the receiving end of a couple of horrific drubbings from Tipperary in the 1964 and 1965 Munster finals.

All of which meant there appeared to be no light at the end of the tunnel heading into the campaign in 1966, especially after Cork had shipped another hammering at the hands of Kilkenny in the League semi-final.

But the shock defeat of a star-studded Tipperary side on the trail of the three-in-a-row and a fifth All-Ireland in six seasons by Limerick in a first round game in Munster threw the championship wide open.

It didn’t seem as if Cork would be the team to benefit from Tipp’s elimination after they were almost ousted themselves in their opening assignment against Clare, relying on a last-gasp goal from a free by Justin McCarthy of Passage to earn a second bite of the cherry.

But they won the replay decisively, with Charlie McCarthy of St Finbarr’s playing a key role after being drafted into the attack where Seanie Barry of Bride Rovers had largely ploughed a lone furrow in the drawn game.

Cork then met Limerick in the Munster semi-final at rain-lashed Killarney where second-half goals from McCarthy and Barry paved the way for a 2-6 to 1-7 win over the giant-killers from Shannonside.

Midleton’s Pat Fitzgerald produced the display of a lifetime at left half back, and Tony Connolly St Finbarr’s made a massive input as well by curtailing Limerick’s youthful wing forward Eamonn Cregan, who, in scoring 3-5, had been the chief architect of Tipp’s demise in the previous round.

An ageing Waterford side was smoothly dispatched in the Munster final, but Cork were firmly cast in the role of the underdog when they squared up to Kilkenny in the show-piece.

Parading such household names as Eddie Keher, Seamus

Cleere, Ted Carroll, Paddy Moran, Martin Coogan, Ollie Walsh and Tom Walsh, who had won All-Ireland medals in 1963, it was easy to appreciate why Kilkenny were hot favourites to prevail at the expense of a Cork fifteen, all of whom were lining out in a final for the first time.

As things transpired, however, Cork’s huge hunger for success proved irresistible on the day, and Kilkenny were forced to bite the dust.

It finished 3-9 to 1-10 in Cork’s favour, with Eire Og’s Colm Sheehan, who bagged a brace, and Blackrock’s John O’Halloran sharing the goals for a team cap