Rivalry moves up a notch as Cork aim for revenge in final
THERE’S a surprising edge to today’s senior AllIreland decider, given that Kilkenny hadn’t won the prize in 22 years before derailing Cork’s three-ina-row bid last term.
But after so many years in the wilderness, Kilkenny upped their game when Ann Downey returned last year for a third stint as manager.
She brought a packed backroom set-up, adamant that standards would improve while Cork witnessed their recent domination of the game being undermined.
Under Paudie Murray, Cork had led the way when it came to attention to detail and to match them, Kilkenny needed to do the same.
Having people involved such as Paddy Mullally and Conor Phelan, who had been part of the greatest hurling squad of all time under Brian Cody, has certainly added knowhow.
While Downey might have been traditional in her thinking, she knew the game had moved on from her time as a player when she won 12 All-Ireland medals, that additional coaching advice was essential and the side has learned to be adaptable.
In last year’s semi-final, Anna Farrell caused mayhem against Galway from wing-forward. Come the final, she was playing deeper, as was subsequent player-of-the-year Denise Gaule.
The Noresiders won more comfortably than the four-point margin might suggest last September. Indeed, the prematch handshake, when Colette Dormer had the last say in a push and shove with Hannah Looney, showed an uncompromising side to Kilkenny.
Davina Tobin showed it again during the game when dragging Looney down in the square with the Killeagh player through on goal. She conceded a penalty but Aoife Murray’s shot was deflected over the bar by Dalton.
They crossed swords again in April’s league decider in Limerick.
Everyone was waiting for the Cork backlash but it never materialised. Gaule scored an early goal and Kilkenny held that advantage to the end.
Both managers are straight-talkers, and in the aftermath of the League decider, Downey accused Cork of showing disrespect by conducting their cool-down while the trophy was being presented to Meighan Farrell.
‘We can’t control what the Cork people will do or what the Cork players will do,’ said Downey on KCLR radio. ‘You wouldn’t want to see it happening too often, to be honest. We just hope that our own team would always show respect to the opposition,’ she suggested.
Murray accepted a call from the Noreside radio station, saying that he always insisted on his players shaking hands with the opposition after a game and that this occurred. Then came the kicker.
‘We were in a circle in the middle of the field, granted the PA system wasn’t great there so it was very difficult to understand or hear any of the speeches, but I don’t know where it is coming from. It’s from someone that has very little to do on a Monday morning.’
A testiness had crept in which may be down to some of Cork’s longerserving players having postponed retirement due to the feeling that they had underperformed last September.
Murray has been busy talking up today’s opposition andjust about stopped short of questioning whether his charges should even bother making the trip to Dublin.
‘I’m worried going into the final at this stage facing Kilkenny,’ he remarked. ‘It probably won’t be a great contest; they play 10 behind the ball, so we’ve to do an awful lot better if we’ve to have any chance.
‘It won’t be one for the spectator really, a lowscoring game.’
The Cork manager is probably right though.
We should not expect a high-scoring, free-flowing encounter but, it seems, there’s enough of an edge to make it interesting.