When Saturday comes...

EVEN with so many stories and angles from the 130-year history of Kerry and Cork doing battle in the Munster Championship, a new piece of that history will be written this weekend when the counties meet in what will be the first Munster SFC Final (outside of a replay) to be staged on a Saturday. The 7pm throw-in in the recently redeveloped Páirc Uí Chaoimh will be a first meeting of the counties at the famous Cork city venue since 2014, when Kerry recorded a 0-24 to 0-12 win on their way to winning the county’s 37th and last All-Ireland title. Munster title no.80 is on offer for the Kingdom – as well as a sixth provincial title in a row – while Cork are seeking their 38 Munster crown, and their first since 2012. Ronan McCarthy will be the third Cork manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice will face since taking charge in 2013, after Brian Cuthbert and Peadar Healy – and Fitzmaurice has yet to lose a Munster Championship game as manager with a record of 12 wins and one draw. With Cork playing Division 2 football for the last couple of seasons the meetings between these old rivals have been far less frequent than a decade ago when they often played each other three times a season. If familiarity breeds contempt then, perhaps, we can expect a more benevolent meeting on Saturday, but somehow we doubt it. Cork football was in danger of slipping into total obscurity, not only on the national stage, but in Munster too, now they have a change to end the Kingdom’s dominance in the province and start some empire building of their own. Kerry are favourites, Cork are underdogs, and a big crowd is expected down by the Lee. There’s nowhere you’d rather be when Saturday comes...