GAELIC GAMES: TOM HUMPHRIEStraces the history of Dublin-Cork meetings and recalls the memorable clashes between the two counties since 1974

DUBLIN BEAT Cork in seven All-Ireland finals in the years at the end of the 19th century and start of the 20th century.

The last meeting in that run was the 1907 final which was played in Tipperary town on July 5th, 1908. It would be 1974 before the two sides were to meet again. This time, and for the first time, in a semi-final.

They would go on to meet in three more semi-finals between then and now, each game being memorable in its own right and the winner of each match going on to win the All-Ireland. Perhaps no game bore more similarities to tomorrow than the first in the series played in 1974.

“Up until this game,” said Paddy Downey in his match report, “it was thought that enthusiasm, determination and fitness were Dublin’s predominant assets. First-class football ability and astute tactics were the most conspicuous and admirable features of a performance which put them through the final.”

Dublin won and went on to become All-Ireland champions that year. Cork vanished. Imprisoned within Munster for almost a decade by the great Kerry team of the era, they grew tired of the damningly faint praise which would be thrown their way by Mick O’Dwyer after every Munster final. “The second best team in Ireland.”

After Kerry’s five-in-a-row dream imploded in September 1982, Cork saw their chance the following summer. They escaped from Munster only to be undone by the old hubris.

It would be 1989 before they claimed the scalp of a Dublin team in combat. Gerry McCaul’s young side paid dearly for its own innocence. Cork went on to win the final against Mayo.

Six years later the nucleus of the Dublin team which lost to Cork that day was back to play in the 1995 All-Ireland semi-final. They had added to their ranks one Jason Sherlock who had been almost reared in the north Cork village of Ballyhea. Young Sherlock’s exuberance was the difference between the sides on the day.

Fifteen years later both sides are back ready to duel. Cork, as in 1974, are burdened by favouritism. Dublin, credited with being plucky and energetic. And all that history has taught us is that history teaches us nothing. Tomorrow is anybody’s game.

August 11th, 1974

Dublin 2-11 Cork 1-8

(Croke Park, Att: 42,190)

Kevin Heffernan believed Dublin should always beat Cork in big games, that Corkonian hubris would get the better of the Rebels.

In 1974, there came at last the chance to put the theory to the test. Cork were All-Ireland champions and impressive ones at that. They had steamed through Munster again. They came to Croke Park as hot favourites.

Heffernan hardly trembled.

He played golf in the Lord Mayor’s Cup on the morning of the semi-final. Carded a 77 to advance to the matchplay section of the competition.

“We confidently expected to win. Dublin had been in the second division and were none too impressive,” recalls Billy Morgan. They weren’t expected to come through Leinster, but they did. We swept all before us in 1973 and came through Munster easily, but I remember in the old dressingrooms in Croke Park which were under the Cusack you could hear the singing from there.

“We came out and there was the sea of blue and the chanting. We’d never had that at Gaelic matches before.”

Famously, in the run-up to the game one of the motivations Heffernan used was to turn a small good-humoured exchange between friends the previous Christmas into a declaration of war. Jimmy and Angela Keaveney had been leaving Billy Morgan’s house one night when Billy pulled Jimmy’s tail by producing the Sam Maguire Cup from the back room.

With Keaveney in retirement from an ailing Division Two side and Cork set to become the dominant team of the era, it hardly seemed like a piece of fun which could backfire. “A fella said to me last week,” says Morgan “that he’d heard that story so many times. I said ‘well can you imagine how often I hear it’!”

Morgan worried through the game as he waited for Cork to put Dublin away. Just coming up to the hour mark though, Cork got a dubious penalty and Jimmy Barry Murphy put it past Paddy Cullen.

A Dublin spectator ran on to the field and grabbed the ball and kicked it into the crowd in protest.

Nobody died.

In the 68th minute of the (80 minute) semi-final though, Billy Morgan found himself in goal with Keaveney having taken possession on the edge of the square.

“He came over the line like a fella scoring a pushover try in rugby. He actually got over the line with me hanging on to him dragging him down”

He had no option but to haul his old friend down rugby-style, hoping to save the penalty. Keaveney didn’t take the kick though. The new young sensation of football, Brian Mullins, put it away. Cork were imprisoned in Munster for the rest of the decade. The Hill was reborn. The stage was set for the ’70s.

August 21st, 1983

Dublin 2-11 Cork 2-11

(Croke Park, Att: 49,773)

August 28th (replay)

Dublin 4-15 Cork 2-10

(Páirc Uí Chaoimh, Att: 43,433)

Billy Morgan was working in Rosie O’Grady’s in midtown Manhattan the day of the first game in Croke Park. He could scarcely believe what he was hearing as the snippets came across.

Cork had broken out of Munster with the famous last- second goal over Kerry, while Dublin had taken the All-Ireland champions Offaly apart with a young team. Both sides came to Croke Park the first day with great expectations.

The big games are games of inches. Cork were hanging in – watching a five-point lead evaporate very slowly in the last 10 minutes. The clock was running down and they were still three points up. Dublin fans need no reminder of the sequence.

Ciarán Duff makes a return handpass to Mullins. Mullins looks up and his corner back and clubmate Ray Hazley is in the one place he shouldn’t be, screaming up the Hogan Stand side toward the left-corner forward position. Little things.

“Joe McNally came out towards Ray for the ball.” recalls Barney Rock. “ He slipped and Mark Healy slipped on top of him, so Ray had to look up again. He put it across. There was a lot of luck . It had to pass between Jimmy Kerrigan and Kevin Kehily to get to me. It was what the gods wanted. You never know until the ball hits the net. I just seemed to get it in the right place. Hit it low under the ’keeper. Just one of those things.”

Rock had a habit of scoring good goals into the Hill end. He’d scored two against Meath there earlier in the summer. And in the final would score another. If you’re a Dub and going to score . . .

Cork sought to have the replay in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Heffernan, seeing how the pressure would swing, readily agreed. Just one of his masterstrokes. The other was to place Barney Rock at corner forward after the throw-in.

Jimmy Kerrigan, a thorn in Dublin’s side all afternoon in Croke Park the previous week as an attacking wing back, was now a neutered man, marking Rock.

“It was the best occasion I ever played in,” says Rock “and it was the best our team ever played. There wasn’t too many bad scores. Heffernan just said go into the corner. I was lucky. I won the first two balls so Jimmy probably had to stay with me. Dully kicked one over the bar. The next one I got in behind Jimmy and the ball actually came to me. Creedon dragged me to the ground.”

The skies and the terrace were blue. Dublin were exultant.

For the replay, Billy Morgan tuned in at a pub in Woodside in Queens. Keaveney and half of the St Vincent’s club in Dublin were staying in his house back in Cork. The other half seemed to be playing for Dublin. It wasn’t too bad being away in America, safe from the slagging.

August 20th, 1989

Cork 2-10 Dublin 1-9

(Croke Park, Att: 60,198)

Admission was a quaint £4 to the terraces and £8 to the posh seats in the Hogan Stand.

What rivalry there was related mainly to the odd after taste of the league quarter-final of 1987 when Cork insisted on getting the train from Heuston while Dublin went out and scored their extra-time goal into an empty net.

For the semi-final Dublin started wonderfully – 1-4 to no score up after 14 minutes. Young, precocious Vinny Murphy having got the goal. Then it all went pete tong. Dublin wouldn’t score again till the second half. By then . . .

“One penalty was from a mistake I made,” recalls John O’Leary, Dublin goalkeeper.

“I gave away a free. The other penalty Paul McGrath was dragged down coming through. John Cleary scored them both. So that was two penalties and then Keith (Barr) getting sent off. We had been going so well and then we went into the dressingroom shell- shocked. We hadn’t won Leinster since 1985 and to get out and get beaten by Cork was a huge setback.”

So Dublin played the semi-final with 14 men for the final 36 minutes. Dinny Allen had been switched onto Keith Barr and the pair began a punch-and-judy style show. Allen was a smarter cookie than Barr though. One minute Barr was found stretched under the Hogan Stand with what transpired later to be a broken jaw. Allen was booked. Then Barr charged Allen like a bull in the next tussle. Barr was sent off. A minute to go before half-time and Dublin had just gone from trouble to deep trouble,

“My memory,” says O’Leary, “is of us chasing the game after the break and just not getting there. We couldn’t break them down. They had the extra man. We were restructuring and we didn’t get out of Leinster again for a while. For most of the lads they stuck around, but it was 1995 before we got an All-Ireland.

The game was a springboard for Cork’s third-All Ireland final appearance on the trot. They went on to beat Mayo in an open game.

August 20th, 1995

Dublin 1-12 Cork 0-12

(Croke Park, Att: 64,245)

Dublin in 1995 were gnarled and scarred. Beaten in the fourth game of the Meath saga in 1991. Beaten by Donegal in the All-Ireland final of 1992. Beaten by Derry in the ’93 semi-final. Beaten by Down in the final of 1994.

“Dublin and the way we were in 1995 reminds me a lot of how Cork are this year. They’ve been in a few semi-finals now but haven’t won a final and that really begins to weigh on you.” says O’Leary. “Dublin remind me of us in 1983. Starting off fresh and coming from nowhere and getting momentum to keep going.”

The real turning point in 1995 was the Leinster final win over Meath by a margin of 10 points. It was the day Dublin peaked. After that it was a question of whether they would get over the line before they collapsed. “I was flying in the Leinster final,” says Dessie Farrell of one of the great centre forward performances of the era. “But I didn’t go so well in the semi-final myself. That’s how it was. The team was relatively flat all around. What stood out was Jayo’s goal and Mick Galvin had a blinder, he kicked four points from play.”

Jason Sherlock was a year out of minor, but every time he played he created a buzz. Dublin started slowly but Sherlock’s goal changed things. A long ball out of defence from Keith Barr. Sherlock won his first ball of the game ahead of Mark O’Connor and decided to take him on. He went around the full back and fired past the goalkeeper to the far corner of the net. “We stuttered our way across the line after that,” says Farrell. “The final was sort of the same. There was a sense of great trepidation the closer we were getting to it, given what had gone on the previous years. We hit the peak at the Leinster final . . .”

Sherlock proved the talisman.

“Jason had no hang-ups,” says Farrell. “While they are very different types of players, there are a lot of similarities between Jason at the time and the likes of Eoghan O’Gara in that full-forward line now. No baggage. He just goes in and takes it as it comes. . . They have a very different outlook. Cavalier. You need that. Jayo’s goal, the cheek of it, to take on Mark O’Connor, one of the best full backs in the country, and to stick it away like he did. O’Gara offers that type of mindset this weekend.”

Four semi-finals all of which smithied All-Ireland winners. Seconds out.

1891 All-Ireland Final (a goal outweighed any number of points)Dublin 2-1 Cork 1-9

1894 All-Ireland Final (draw – a goal equalled five points)Dublin 0-6 Cork 1-1

1894 All-Ireland Final (replay – unfinished)Cork 1-2 Dublin 0-5

1897 All-Ireland Final Dublin 2-6 Cork 0-2

1899 All-Ireland Final Dublin 1-10 Cork 0-6

1902 All-Ireland 'Home' Final Dublin 1-2 Cork 0-4

1907 All-Ireland Final Dublin 0-5 Cork 0-4

1908 All-Ireland Final Dublin 0-6 Cork 0-2

1974 All-Ireland Semi-final Dublin 2-11 Cork 1-8

1983 All-Ireland Semi-final Dublin 2-11 Cork 2-11

1983 All-Ireland Semi-final (replay)Dublin 4-15 Cork 2-10

1989 All-Ireland Semi-final Cork 2-10 Dublin 1-9

1995 All-Ireland Semi-final Dublin 1-12 Cork 0-12