There was a picture that prompted much agonising after the 1998 Leinster hurling final. It was of Kilkenny’s corner back and captain, Tom Hickey, trudging across an empty Croke Park pitch, the Bob O’Keeffe Cup dangling from his arm like a bag of groceries.
The photograph was widely used to intuit Kilkenny’s sense of the underwhelmed despite having just beaten Offaly to win their first provincial title in five years.
In the perennial comparison between the provinces, Munster hurling finals always come with the blessings of posterity and tradition, whereas Leinster bear the burdens of pale comparison and, at times, faint praise.
Back in 1998, this eternal truth was further endorsed by news that then president of Ireland, Mary McAleese, (currently wrangling the three associations as chairwoman of the integration group), would attend her first GAA match of the year, the following weekend in Thurles for the Clare-Waterford Munster final. It felt as if the bar for her presence had been appropriately raised.
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For context, this was the second year of the new championship structure – in the vernacular, the back door – which notionally rendered the provincial finals less important.
That was unlikely to be the reason for Kilkenny’s lack of excitement, though. A year previously, when the back door was first put on the latch, Clare regained Munster and triggered Anthony Daly’s famous speech about his county’s mission to show “that we are no longer the whipping boys of Munster” before a capacity crowd in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Closer to home, the 1997 Leinster finals had attracted record attendances for both the semi-finals and final.
Wexford beat Kilkenny a week after the Munster final, encouraging Rod Guiney to deliver a swift homage to Daly by declaring his team to be no longer the whipping boys of Leinster – a curious reflection for the captain of the All-Ireland champions.
The contrast between the provincial finals has been heightened in recent years for two reasons: Kilkenny’s domination of Leinster; and the big box-office success of the Munster round robin and particularly its finals, although they are not linked into the rest of the championship.
At the same time, Limerick have been equally dominant in Munster, but their provincial finals have produced some fascinating matches. Unlike Leinster, where Galway are the only team playing in the province to have won the All-Ireland since 2015, Munster have produced three different champions even during Limerick’s six-year reign in the province.
Galway’s migration eastwards in 2009 has become routine and in a way anti-climactic. Brought in to intensify competition by providing a foil for Kilkenny, they have won three provincial titles in that time, 2012, ’17 and ’18.
Galway’s distance from Dublin hasn’t helped attendances in recent years, as crowds of only 25,951 and 24,483 turned up to the last two finals to feature Kilkenny and the Connacht county.
Yet Galway’s clash with Wexford eight years ago created a new record for a provincial hurling final and broke the 60,000 barrier for the first time.
The missing ingredient is Wexford, whose last two appearances in the final in 2017 and ‘19 have attracted the century’s highest attendances for Leinster hurling’s biggest day.
For all that Galway’s arrival hasn’t transformed the provincial championship, it’s as well to ask where would it have been without them?
They have provided opposition for Kilkenny in nine of the 11 finals they have contested since they crossed the Shannon. The move has certainly added depth to the championship and helped to position Galway to contest three All-Ireland finals, winning one, and seven semi-finals.
Another factor in Leinster’s labouring box office is that it fulfils a role as a development competition, which features two of six teams every year earmarked for a relegation clash and in general not carrying much jeopardy for the other counties.
In six years, the bottom teams have recorded two wins and three draws against established opponents.
The main drag on the province’s status, however, is its lack of All-Ireland relevance. Since Kilkenny’s last success 10 years ago, they have lost four finals whereas Galway have won one and lost one.
The record unbroken sequence for counties from the same province winning Liam MacCarthy is seven. It was set in the 1940s by Limerick, Cork’s four-in-a-row team, Tipperary and Cork coming back for another in 1946.
After Kilkenny broke that sequence in 1947, the next seven also went to Munster, from Waterford’s first in 1948 and sequential three-in-a-rows for Tipp and Cork. Wexford stopped the run in 1955.
This year Munster have again won the last seven, mostly Limerick but with help from Tipperary and Clare, and it looks certain that a new record will be set in July.
Kilkenny and Galway will attempt to dispute that and next Sunday, one of them will qualify for the All-Ireland semi-finals.
Back in that year of 1998, Offaly created history by becoming the first All-Ireland champions to have lost a match en route to winning the All-Ireland. That alternative approach has rarely been exploited in Leinster.
Kilkenny walked that path in 2012, having avenged a provincial final defeat by Galway, but hardly any counties in the province could aspire to a national target if beaten in Leinster.
Last year, Clare were just the latest side to avail of a route to the All-Ireland after losing in Munster. They joined Cork (2004), Tipperary (2010 and ‘19) and Limerick (2018). Even after defeat, counties in the south can see the bigger picture.
It is fair to suggest that whoever loses next Sunday in Croke Park is unlikely to have a realistically similar view.
