Cork and Tipp seeking to bridge long gaps in league

The last time the Munster old firm contested a senior national title, the old Hogan Stand was only built a year and the original Páirc Uí Chaoimh was over a decade and a half away from construction.

Christy Ring's hat-trick wasn't sufficient to stop Tipperary claiming their ninth league title in the Cork Athletic Grounds - the same site as Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Ballintemple - at the end of the 1959-60 campaign.

Cork and Tipp meet in this year's final, both seeking to bridge a lengthy gap to their last league triumph. In each case, their most recent league title could be retrospectively seen as a springboard.

Cork's 1998 league success during Jimmy Barry Murphy's first stint came at the end of a barren five-year stretch without a single victory of note in the Munster SHC (save for against Kerry), and provided the first bit of silverware for the young crop that would deliver a long-awaited All-Ireland title the following year.

Tipp's 2008 league win came in Liam Sheedy's first season in charge - after Babs Keating ill-fated and acrimonious second spell - and was followed by a first Munster title in seven years later that summer.

Despite a welcome tweak to the format, this year's Allianz Hurling League barely caught the imagination any more than its recent predecessors, with football's rule changes hogging so much air-time, alongside the more perennial issue of the looming provincial round-robin campaigns occupying everyone's thoughts.

The dramatic exception to the general listlessness is on Leeside, where hype levels are already clocking dangerous highs.

In contrast to the poorly-attended football final, the hurling league decider has been a sellout since last week. The atmosphere of yearning around Cork is intense, even if this weekend is only a staging post.

Cork ran riot with six goals in Ennis

Cork traditionally gave little thought to the league but in the wake of last summer's gut-wrenching All-Ireland final defeat and with not Munster title since 2018, there's a sense that it could be a decent filip at this stage in their evolution.

"We can talk all about how we're getting better and we're going closer," Pat Ryan told RTÉ Sport this week.

"But you have to win, you have to win stuff. You have to have trophies.

"We all know that the main aim is the Liam MacCarthy. But look 'tis brilliant to pick something up along the way."

Cork's league campaign was a bit of a slow burn, initially. A handy win over a severely under-strength Wexford was followed by a rather lucky draw at home to Limerick, a hotly-anticipated game whose original omission from the TV schedule did at least generate some badly needed viral interest in the hurling league.

After the four-point loss to a resurgent Tipperary in Semple Stadium, it looked like a classically so-so league effort from Cork. But they clicked into high gear on the home stretch, commencing with a win over Kilkenny.

Either Tipperary or Cork will end a lengthy Allianz Hurling League title drought on Sunday pic.twitter.com/72HfmZAZET — RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) April 4, 2025

Whereas the last All-Ireland winning Cork team (2004-05 back-to-back side) scored goals relatively infrequently, relying on huge point hauls, this side are burying goals at the rate of knots in recent weeks. They hit 10 goals across their last two games for the concession of none, beating Clare and Galway by 15 and 12 points respectively.

Their Under-20 All-Ireland bonanza in the early 2020s has yielded a host of attackers in Alan Connolly, Shane Barrett, Brian Hayes and latterly Diarmuid Healy, joining the more experienced marksmen in Darragh Fitzgibbon and the venerable Patrick Horgan.

"Look, there's been a lot of work on done in Cork GAA. Not by me. But by lots of other people, By clubs and families and stuff like that," says Ryan.

"And we've a better standard of player at the moment. I'm in a very lucky position compared maybe to some of the Cork managers of the past in that we have plenty of players at the moment."

As per the perennial fear of peaking too early in the season, Ryan isn't too concerned. Waterford's 2022 league victory and subsequent Munster championship implosion briefly fed the idea that strong league form was a negative indicator for championship, though the last two league champions have also won the All-Ireland.

Liam Cahill and Pat Ryan after the 2023 Munster championship meeting

It would, as Ryan insists, not do any actual harm to win a league.

"Look, when you lose matches, they (the cynics) aren't long turning up either. It's better to be winning matches than losing matches.

"The best way to prepare for championship is to really go hammer and tongs at in on Sunday.

"And look, if you do get a bit of silverware, it didn't do Clare any harm last year."

If Cork are already into 'All-Ireland-or-bust' territory, then Tipperary are at a much more formative stage in their evolution.

The end of the decorated 2010s generation of players has resulted in a fairly traumatic adjustment for Tipp.

The 2024 season rivalled the 2022 campaign in the annus horribilis stakes.

2023 didn't finish too healthily either, with a loss to Davy Fitzgerald's Waterford denying them a Munster final slot and then a 'two-point hammering' at the hands of a wasteful Galway in the quarter-final.

The win-loss ratio in recent seasons is straying a bit too close to the late 70s/ early 80s for comfort. They've won just one from 12 in the Munster championship since 2022.

Liam Cahill had enough credibility with the hurling public to weather the storm, thanks to his U21 record and guiding Waterford to an All-Ireland final in 2020.

The staggeringly paltry Tipp crowd that attended their Munster opener away to Limerick and their do-or-die game at home to Cork - where they were outnumbered to an extraordinary degree in their own stadium - had fed the notion that the supporters had abandoned the team.

Cahill addressed this early on in 2025, using the post-match in Salthill to draw a distinction between the "knowledgeable" Tipperary crowd who understood patience was regarded and the "less knowledgeable" bunch who wouldn't accept this.

"The league had to be important to us for 2025," Cahill told RTÉ Sport's Marty Morrissey this week. "Obviously coming off a poor championship in 2024.

"We went about the league to really start putting performances together again. Getting a bit of energy into our squad and, and I suppose into the Tipperary people as well to get them back really, supporting this team again and believing in in what we're trying to do."

All the while, Tipp continued winning games, winning all bar their away game in Limerick in Round 3.

Darragh McCarthy takes on Kilkenny's Tommy Walsh

They've done so while blooding a clutch of new players, the most hyped of whom is Darragh McCarthy, the 19-year old graduate of the 2022 All-Ireland minor winning side, who led Toomevara to a first county final in 16 years last season. The teenager has assumed free-taking duties ahead of Gearóid O'Connor and Jason Forde and racked up double-digit points tallies in nearly every game.

Aside from that, there's full-back Robert Doyle, Oisín O'Donoghue and Sam O'Farrell, the latter being particularly impressive in their victory in the surreal game in Nowlan Park.

"That in itself is a sign of real green shoots starting to appear," Liam Cahill tells RTÉ Sport. "Please God, these fellas will have long and healthy careers with Tipperary.

"I think our underage structure in Tipperary is working well. I know people will always look at things that we don't do so well. But in general, across the board, our underage structure has provided us with a high number of these players to come through.

"James Woodlock's work at minor level, we're after winning two of the last three minor All-Irelands. Our U20s reached the All-Ireland final last year. There's a good platform for these lads to develop."

The more sceptical of the Tipp public may be inclined to wait for championship for a firmer indication on their prospects. Even last year, their league form was relatively decent and it counted for little come summer.

Though Cahill stresses a league title would be worthwhile for its own sake, especially after a 17-year gap.

"It's a national title at the end of the day. None of the present squad, not even Noe McGrath, has a league medal. So, it's very, very important."

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