Throwback Thursday: When a brilliant Nemo team became kings of Munster in 1993 

IT'S 29 years ago this week Nemo Rangers beat Kilmurry-Ibrickane 1-17 to 0-04 in the final of the Munster Club Senior Football Championship at Fitzgerald's Stadium in Killarney.

The 16-point hammering of the Clare champions delivered their ninth provincial title and it helped remind the masses of the power of the black and green on South Douglas Road.

This is because Nemo did one of the hardest things in sport, they recaptured a former glory.

In 1993 they were five years removed from the days of eight Munster championships in sixteen years, a period that also brought five All-Irelands to Trabeg.

It wasn’t the longest drought in Irish sport, but it was still an eternity given the club’s recent history.

The feelings surrounding the club were exasperated by their loss to O’Donovan Rossa in the 1992 Cork Senior Football Championship final. That was Nemo’s first appearance on the biggest stage locally in four years and their second-ever defeat at that stage of the competition.

The last time that feeling carried through the winter it was in 1970 when a tally of 4-6 wasn’t enough to beat divisional side Muskerry.

Recapturing the Andy Scannell Cup was a task made all that sweeter as it stopped local rivals St Finbarr’s winning the hurling and football double. Nemo faced them in the Cork final on October 31 and pipped them to the cup by eight points.

The scale of the achievement was magnified by the novice status of manager Dinny Allen.

The legendary full-forward retired in 1991 and within two years he was leading Nemo into the Cork Senior Football Championship final as manager. Allen arrived into the dugout with a wealth of expectation given that he had lifted Sam Maguire with Cork in 1989 and he immediately validated his credentials by masterminding the defeat of St Finbarr’s.

But, in true Nemo fashion, this only whet the appetite for greater success and a Munster title was next on their agenda.

The club’s journey resumed on December 5 with a semi-final bout with Kerry champions Laune Rangers at JP O’Sullivan Park in Killorglin.

Nemo travelled down to the Kingdom with a slight edge as it was 35 days since their last game in the championship, whereas Laune Rangers had not played since their Muster quarter-final against Claughaun on October 17.

This was just a marginal advantage to Nemo, who were boasted an excellent record against Kerry clubs in the Munster championship. This was their ninth time entering the provincial arena and the Cork kingpins held a 100% record against clubs from the Kingdom.

With all of that in mind, Nemo outscored Laune Rangers by five points and they booked their place in the final against Kilmurry-Ibrickane on December 12th at Fitzgerald’s Stadium.

Nemo went back to Kerry carrying some weight of expectation from home given that Cork, managed by Billy Morgan, had lost the 1993 All-Ireland final to Derry.

That handed Sam Maguire to the Oak Leaf County for the first time. If that wasn’t bad enough, Cork had fought through three point deficit at half-time and lost by one.

It was a cruel way to lose the biggest game of all and four of the Nemo panel featured that day at Croke Park.

The quartet returned to club action and they linked up with some of the best names ever to play football in Cork.

CORE

The core group for championship included Jimmy Kerrigan, Niall Creedon, Tony Nation, Shea Fahy, and Steven O’Brien from the Cork team that won All-Ireland titles in 1989 and 1990.

They were strengthened by the youth who had cut their teeth in Coláiste Chríost Rí’s successes in the Corn Uí Mhuirí in the late 1980s and Nemo’s back-to-back Cork U21 titles in 1988 and 1989.

The Clare champions were no match for Nemo, who were led by Colin Corkery on the day. He kicked over 1-9 and he finished the game as top scorer.

It was a dominating performance that also saw no player from Kilmurry-Ibrickane score more than once over 60 minutes.

As is tradition with Nemo, the game inspired a whole new generation with future Cork captain Paul Kerrigan standing beside the trophy lift after the full-time whistle.

His father had just won his 31st medal in Gaelic football and this one was closely watched by a future All-Ireland winner and Cork captain Across from him in that day was also a young Colm Cooper, who would later win seven All-Irelands with Kerry.

The victory meant a long of things to a lot of different people; from obvious inspiration to a reaffirmation of the power of black and green.

All that mattered that day on the road home was that Nemo were Munster champions once again.