TOMPKINS: WE RULED KINGDOM
Former great looks back on Kingdom rivalry fondly and believes Cork can rise again
LARRY TOMPKINS doesn’t have to stray too far to gauge the mood of the Cork public; simply lean across the counter of his pub on Lavitt’s Quay. So, in a week when the footballers travel to Killarney for a Munster football final, the excitement must be palpable. There’s a buzz alright — it is just for a different game.
‘There has barely been a word about it!’ Tompkins says. ‘People are more worried about finding tickets for the hurling final. That is what I keep getting asked, if I can get them tickets for Thurles next week.’
The lot of the Cork footballer is to forever live in the shadow of the hurlers. Tompkins long resigned himself to that being the way of things. ‘If Cork footballers are playing, the traffic will flow as normal outside my door. But if the hurlers are playing, there won’t be a car on the road,’ he says, by way of explanation.
It wasn’t always so. When Tompkins was in his pomp as one of the finest centre-forwards in the game, the footballers and hurlers were considered equal citizens. And on weekends such as this one, with half of Cork decamping to Killarney, Tompkins can’t help but think of his first trip to the iconic Fitzgerald Stadium.
It was 30 years ago. A Munster final replay. The first game in Paírc Uí Chaoimh was Tompkins’ second Championship match in the blood and bandage. ‘I remember every moment of it,’ he recalls of a game famous for his injurytime equalising free.
‘We led the whole way, probably should have won it. Then Mikey Sheehy got a brilliant goal just before the end and it put Kerry a point ahead. I remember the Bomber [Eoin Liston] hanging off the crossbar in celebration and Billy [Morgan] lying on the ground in the sideline, thinking Kerry had done them again.
‘Fair play to John Kerins, God rest him, he kept his head. Kicked the ball out quickly. He actually kicked it with his left foot, even though he was a rightfooted kicker. The ball was worked down to John O’Driscoll, who was fouled, and fortunately I kicked the ball over the bar to draw the match. Of course, everyone thought our chance was gone.’
The replay would be the first time that Tompkins played in Fitzgerald Stadium. ‘Myself and Shea Fahey never set foot in it. When we were with Kildare, if we played Kerry in challenge games or the League, it was always Tralee.’
On the Thursday morning before the match, Tompkins and his friend Christy Collins set out from Castlehaven. Collins had put a call into Eddie ‘Tatler’ O’Sullivan, the famous Killarney publican, wondering if he could borrow the keys to The Kingdom. For almost an hour on the famous field, Tompkins kicked ball after ball over the bar with Collins dutifully collecting each of them.
A few years back, over a pint, the Bomber told him that Kerry were supposed to train that night. But Mick O’Dwyer was irate, demanding to know how Tompkins had found a way into Fitzgerald Stadium. ‘Bomber reckons their focus was completely thrown for that session, all Micko could talk about was me!’ Tompkins chuckles.
The practice worked. In the replay, Tompkins’ flawless place-kicking was the platform for a famous win that saw Morgan and his players march down the street of Killarney as Munster champions. It was a long time coming for a lot of those players, but Tompkins knew no different.
For most of his playing days, he knew little different than Cork beating Kerry. That win sparked the Rebels’ greatest ever winning streak in the rivalry. They’d win seven games in the next nine years, including four at a Fitzgerald Stadium that no longer seemed a fortress.
During that time when he won two Celtic Crosses, Tompkins only lost once to Cork’s old enemy — in 1992. He missed the 1991 defeat because he was coming back from a careerthreatening injury.
‘Did I realise the magnitude of winning in Killarney that day? Myself and Shea were coming at it from a different angle, we hadn’t lost all those games to Kerry the others had lost. But as a footballer, you always want to measure yourself against the best. They were all household names. If you could beat them, you could beat anyone. Beating them that day was the making of that Cork team,’ Tompkins observes. He played in the 1995 game at Fitzgerald Stadium, which grows more infamous with each passing year as the last time that Cork actually won a Championship game in enemy territory. When he went on to manage the Rebels a few years later, they drew a couple of times in Killarney. Never won.
‘It’s hard to believe that it has been 22 years since Cork won there. Crazy. Didn’t see that coming back then. We managed to draw down there a couple of times when I was manager, probably should have won one of those,’ he sighs.
And Tompkins reckons that Kerry’s recent dominance has contributed to the Cork public falling out of love with their football team.
‘Cork winning in Fitzgerald Stadium means an awful lot more to them and the public at large than Kerry coming over the border and winning in Paírc Ui Chaoimh. When Cork win in Killarney, it gives them confidence and belief and the public gets behind them.
‘It has been hard for the Cork public when Kerry have been so dominant for so long in this rivalry. Even when they won the All-Ireland in 2010, someone else [Down] took care of Kerry along the way. I remember the following year, we went down there and Cork were All-Ireland champions. They should have went down with their chest out but they lost.’
The Rebels head to Killarney tomorrow at a low ebb. They have become everyone’s favourite punch-bag and nobody is holding out much hope for them. But Tompkins believes it is down to the players to show some pride in themselves, ‘Colm O’Rourke said it a few weeks ago. It is up to the Cork players themselves to gain some respect. They need to do it inside the white lines and what better place to do it than go to Killarney and do it. How much more can they be beaten down before there is a reaction.
‘And the supporters need to see the Cork players play with a bit of pride. There will probably be a big Cork crowd heading over this weekend, but most of them are probably only going for the craic. But when the players themselves cross the county bounds, they have to be ready for a war, ready to die for the cause. The supporters have to see that.’
If Cork’s recent record against Kerry is driving him to despair, Tompkins is also concerned about the direction of Gaelic football. Although he admits that he was pleasantly surprised by Down’s game with Monaghan last week, ‘a proper Championship game with kick-passing and aggression,’ he notices in the patrons of his pub a general lack of interest towards the game. ‘If there’s a hurling match on, every set of eyes in the place is glued to it. But if there is a football match, a lot of people will barely look at it. I would advocate a few rule changes to get the public interested again.’ Tompkins wants all kick-outs to go beyond the 45m line and there should be no passing back to goalkeepers. ‘I would also get rid of the black card, it is a needless complication. And I think any scoreable free should be kicked from the ground and kicked by an outfield player,’ says one of the greatest free-takers of his generation.
‘Goalies trotting up 70 yards to take a free, That should be outlawed. I remember going to Croke Park in the 1970s to watch the likes of Tony McTigue of Offaly, Tommy Carnew of Kildare and Jimmy Keaveney of Dublin, even the likes of Matt Connor.
‘People were nearly going to the games to watch free-takers because it was such a skill.’
Larry Tompkins belongs in that bracket.
If Cork had someone with his ice-cool composure and precision tomorrow, you can bet there would have been a bit more of a buzz around Leeside this week.
For most of his playing days, Cork beat Kerry