Cork hoping 1998 All-Ireland U21 win over Galway can be a positive omen

Despite there being a 22-year gap – in terms of championships, nearly 23 years in actual time – between Cork’s last All-Ireland U21 hurling title and first U20 victory, the county was never outstripped at the top of the roll of honour (despite the age-change, the lineage is considered singular).

Now, having ended the long wait with victory over Dublin in the 2020 final in July, Cork will aim to win a second title in just over a month when they clash with Galway in Thurles tomorrow night.

The win against the Dubs in Nowlan Park brought Cork to 12 titles, one ahead of Kilkenny and Tipperary with Galway on ten.

The last time that Cork had come out on top was 1998 – at the time of their 11th championship, Tipperary had won eight, Galway had seven and Kilkenny had six. However, a possible good omen is the fact that Cork’s triumph was coming on the back of victory the previous year.

They were aided by the fact that ten of the starting team for the 1997 final win over Galway were eligible again and Bertie Óg Murphy’s side soared through Munster in 1998, recording an average winning margin of 18 points in games against Clare, Waterford and Tipperary.

When Antrim were seen off by 3-15 to 0-11 in the All-Ireland semi-final, it set up a rematch with Galway in Thurles – the 1997 decider had been the counties’ first at the grade since 1982.

The game was a week after Cork’s minors had won their All-Ireland and the senior team had claimed the national league that May – little wonder that Brendan Larkin wrote in the Echo that they had “laid a firm foundation for senior success in the coming years”. Even so, few could have imagined that eight of the 17 to see game-time – Dónal Óg Cusack, Diarmuid O’Sullivan, Wayne Sherlock, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, Neil Ronan, Timmy McCarthy, Mickey O’Connell, Joe Deane and Ben O’Connor – would be starters as Cork ended a nine-year wait for a senior title in September of the following year.

While the performance wasn’t a vintage one by Cork, they did enough. The strength of the team as a whole came to the fore for the Rebels. Whereas Diarmuid O’Sullivan, centre-back Dan Murphy and Joe Deane had been instrumental in getting them that far, it was lesser-heralded players like Wayne Sherlock, Derek Barrett and Mark Prendergast who came to the fore in the decider.

Sherlock and Prendergast shut down Galway’s dangerman Kevin Broderick and Eugene Cloonan while Barrett was majestic and the switching of O’Connell to midfield for the second half alongside Austin Walsh helped Cork to gain the upper hand there.

Cork led by 0-4 to 0-3 when Brian O’Keeffe struck for the first of his goals and that four-point gap was still there at half-time, 1-7 to 0-6 the lead. By the tenth minute of the second half, the advantage was eight as Deane continued to send over frees, and when a Timmy McCarthy run was ended illegally, a penalty was awarded.

While Diarmuid O’Sullivan’s effort was saved by Terence Grogan in the Galway goal, but Cork didn’t have long to wait for a second green flag as O’Keeffe struck again soon after that to put them out of sight. Two late Galway goals meant there were only five points in it at the end, 2-15 to 2-10 the final score, but Cork’s supremacy wasn’t in doubt.

Afterwards, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín paid tribute to the input of manager Murphy.

“At half-time, things did not look all that rosy in the garden for us, when we led by only four points after playing with the wind in the first half,” he said.

“The coach pointed out that this was the end of the line for many of us in this grade and he begged us to go out in a blaze of glory.”

Scorers for Cork: J Deane (0-7f), M O’Connell (0-1f, 0-1 65) 0-7 each, B O’Keeffe 2-0, J Anderson 0-1.

Scorers for Galway: E Cloonan 1-5 (1-2f), M Kerins 1-3, P Walshe 0-2 (0-1 65).

CORK: D Óg Cusack; M Prendergast, D O’Sullivan, W Sherlock; D Barrett, D Murphy, S Óg Ó hAilpín; A Walsh, L Mannix; N Ronan, T McCarthy, M O’Connell; B O’Keeffe, S O’Farrell, J Deane. Subs: J Anderson for Mannix, B O’Connor for O’Farrell.

GALWAY: T Grogan; J Feeney, V Maher; F Healy, M Healy, G Lynskey; P Walshe, A Kerins; R Gantley, C Connaughton, M Cullinane; K Broderick M Kerins, E Cloonan. Subs: D O’Shaughnessy for Connaughton, R Cullinane for Gantley.

Referee: D Murphy (Wexford).