Limerick are back in a Munster football final and as in other years of the open draw era, the team is managed by a Kerry man, reports Seán Moran

EIGHTEEN YEARS ago this month on a broiling, overcast afternoon, the GAA had one of its busiest Sundays. The Munster and Leinster hurling finals took place on July 21st, the former a climactic conclusion to a two-part Cork-Tipp struggle and the latter more of a collector’s item, the last Dublin-Kilkenny final until this year.

Another link with that weekend was the presence of Limerick in a Munster football final. It’s easy to forget what a novelty that was.

In the days before the open provincial draws, Cork and Kerry contested virtually every Munster final.

The open draw had been introduced the year before, in 1990, and of the preceding 30 finals just one had broken the duopoly, the 1965 match after Limerick, starring a young Eamonn Cregan, shocked Cork in the semi-finals before losing to Kerry.

At Páirc Uí­ Chaoimh tomorrow afternoon, the Limerick footballers will be back in the provincial final. As in the other years of the open draw era when they achieved that feat, 1991, 2003 and ’04, the team is managed by a Kerryman, Mickey Ned O’Sullivan, who by coincidence managed Kerry in the 1991 final and who follows in the footsteps of multi-All-Ireland medallist (and Irish Times football analyst) John O’Keeffe and Liam Kearns.

Two of O’Sullivan’s selectors, Paddy Ivess and Joe Redington, played in that game. “We’re very close neighbours,” says Kearns of the links between the counties.

“West Limerick is geographically close to Kerry and it’s well known that people there will support Kerry in the later stages of the championship. A lot of Kerry managers have been in Limerick down the years; there is an empathy there.”

From 2000 to 2005 Kearns was in charge of Limerick during the county’s most successful period in about a century.

Their haul of silverware may have been modest, a divisional league title and provincial under-21 championship, but as a competitive force near the top of the game the county had never been so highly rated.

“I worked with Drom-Broadford for four years,” says Kearns, “before getting involved on the inter-county scene. I knew the county and felt they were better than what they were achieving. I didn’t expect to bring them from number 32 to Division One and a place in the national league semi-finals, but I believed they had better in them.

“I started with the under-21s and seniors together for the first two years and once I had a panel that was good enough I concentrated on the seniors. Standards needed to be introduced and I felt I had to get in young fellas who would want to do things properly.

“The under-21s came along and we won Munster and reached an All-Ireland final. The following year we lost the Munster final narrowly to Cork.”

The availability of a talented under-age cohort was an encouragement for Kearns. A decade previously, John O’Keeffe felt a greater sense of limitation when taking over in Limerick. The open draw might have widened the championship horizons, but football was still a minority taste.

“The first thing I noticed was that the resources were small enough,” remembers O’Keeffe. “Football was taken very seriously in pockets, but it was quite obvious you didn’t have A schools and strong minor teams. You were dealing with a small pick.

“As a result, I realised that, although some of the clubs were very keen on the game and put in a lot of work, the chances of success were limited.”

One way in which O’Keeffe strengthened his hand was to approach former players, who had taken up rugby and invite them on to the panel. The names he approached became well-known and included future internationals Eddie Halvey and Philip Danaher (and Brian Spillane, who had already played on the Ireland team that won the Triple Crown in 1985).

“One of the things I did was to get involved some of the local rugby players as soon as their season was over. Dan Larkin, Pat Murray, Eddie Halvey, Brian Spillane and Philip Danaher all came into the panel at various times. A good few of them had played football as their first game when they were juveniles. Philip Danaher grew up in Abbeyfeale and only took up rugby in secondary school.”

Larkin was injured just before the 1991 Munster final, but Danaher set up the first goal, from a penalty award, within a minute of the throw-in. Further goals sustained a terrific challenge that Kerry subdued only with difficulty.

“A big problem I remember at the time,” according to O’Keeffe, “was that we were winning matches with such difficulty in the lower divisions of the league, it was hard to get players to believe that they could stand on the same field as Kerry.

“We got a penalty in the first minute that day and that set us on the way. We scored 3-12 and it took an exceptional display by Maurice Fitzgerald (0-12, six from play) to get them over the line. There were some outstanding players on the team – Donal Fitzgibbon at midfield with John Quane in the first year of a long, distinguished career, Danny Fitzgerald, who had hurled for Limerick (and whose four points from play helped him to an All Star nomination that year), Timmy Cummins and Fintan Ryan up front, Paddy Ivess and Paddy Barrett (a member of the 1990 international rules panel in Australia) in defence.

“They were really dedicated footballers with a great spirit. You can do well in a weaker county if you get 22 footballers who’ll put in the work and give the commitment. I was lucky to have that.

“Maybe it was a year or two too late. The age profile was a little too advanced so we weren’t able to build fully on it, although we gave Kerry another very close run in the following year’s semi-final.

“Kerry didn’t have a great team at that time and were very beatable, but I don’t think the Limerick lads believed that it could happen. Then after the ’92 semi-final Clare went and beat them in the Munster final. It was definitely an opportunity for us.”

Kearns’ team was built on the under-21s of 2000, who won Munster and reached the All-Ireland final only to lose to Cormac McAnallen’s Tyrone,

nine of whom went on to win senior medals.

Unlike their 1991 predecessors, the Limerick team of this decade had to cope with a top-class Kerry threat. The finals of 2003 and ’04, in tandem with an appearance in the league semi-finals (inevitably against Kerry), represent the highpoint of the county’s senior achievement.

In the first season they defeated Cork for the first time in nearly 40 championships and rattled Kerry badly in Killarney.

Failure to take early chances and an injury to Stephen Kelly, whose pace was cutting strips off Kerry, undermined the challenge, but for Kearns the biggest disappointment came a year later.

Limerick played excellent and sustained football against the team which would win that year’s All-Ireland. Kerry were lucky to survive the first day and even in the replay needed extra-time to survive.

“In ’03, they weren’t quite ready and had to play in Killarney,” says Kearns, “which is a big ask. My biggest regret is ’04 when we had them cold. There’s no way they should have got out of the Gaelic Grounds that day. It’s still the biggest frustration I ever experienced as a manager.

“I was proud of the replay because everyone said that we’d missed the boat in the drawn game. But, for the first half hour, they played the best football they ever played for me and were seven points up after half an hour in Killarney and not many teams do that to Kerry.”

Tomorrow is just another Munster football final for Cork.

For the county that hasn’t won any championship silver for two centuries it won’t be quite that mundane.