Things will be all-white for Cork against Galway

Opener for ten: what do the hurling teams of Cork and Galway have in common in this still-youthful 2023 season?

To save yourself racking your brain too much – it is the week of a bank holiday, after all – the answer is that both have won silverware while wearing change kits. Cork were in white shirts for the Canon O’Brien Cup win over UCC in early January, while last weekend saw Galway beat Wexford in the Allianz Hurling League, a game that doubled up as the Walsh Cup final. The Model County were wearing a green commemorative strip to mark the 130th anniversary of their first All-Ireland but it was such a dark shade that it would have clashed with Galway’s maroon and so the Tribesmen were in their white back-up set.

This Sunday, Galway and Cork meet in Pearse Stadium in Salthill and one would expect to see Cork’s white jerseys on show again. It seems logical in terms of avoiding any confusion, but it hasn’t always been a given in terms of meetings of the two counties.

Speaking to The Echo last year, former Cork underage player Jamie Wall, now a successful coach, outlined the benefits of avoiding any colour-clash.

“People would say, ‘Surely you can tell the difference,’ and from the stand, it might be fairly straightforward,” he said, “but it’s not like a PlayStation game where you’re controlling the player but have a third-person view.

“When you’re playing a game, you’re doing so with your peripherals. Especially with the way hurling has gone, with runners off the shoulder and all of these things, you might only be seeing a flash of colour.

“My only experience wearing a change strip as a player for Cork was the 2010 All-Ireland minor football quarter-final against Armagh.

“Then, three years later, we met Galway in the U21 final. Earlier that year, we had played them in a challenge game in LIT and it was considered a clash but then, for the All-Ireland final, it wasn’t, for whatever reason.

“It was a rotten wet day and certain weather conditions can make colours even harder to distinguish.”

In the 1953 All-Ireland hurling final, provincial colours were worn – the blue of Munster for Cork and Galway in Connacht’s white – but, after Galway moved to the Munster championship in 1959, three provincial meetings over the course of the next decade saw no need for change.

After that experiment ended, there were three All-Ireland semi-final meetings in the 1970s. In 1975 – two years after Cork wore white against Galway in the All-Ireland football final – the Tribesmen had already worn white when they had beaten Westmeath at the quarter-final stage, but the semi-final against Cork was a maroon v red jerseys affair. Or, rather, the senior semi-final was.

In the opening game at Croke Park that day, Galway’s minors wore white against Cork but the centrepiece occasion went ahead with traditional jerseys on show – according to a newspaper report, Cork had rejected Galway’s proposal to toss for colours. The only concession to the black-and-white television viewers was that Cork wore black shorts.

In the next two semi-final meetings that decade, Cork were in their usual red-white-red while Galway wore maroon jerseys and shorts with white socks. Similarly, two semi-finals and a final in the 1980s had Galway in all-maroon with Cork unchanged.

For the 1990 hurling final, Galway had ditched the maroon shorts and, bar the occasional switch for a league game, that’s how things remained until the last few years.

When the counties met in the All-Ireland U20 and minor hurling finals within a few days of each other in August 2021, each wore white once – Cork won both matches and the U20s, who had won in their change strip, put on red jerseys for the presentation and celebrations.

Then, for last June’s All-Ireland quarter-final, there was a toss for colours, which Galway won, with the stipulation that, from then on, the counties would take in turns to change. Logic at play.

“In 2021, when Cork played Galway in the U20 and minor hurling finals, Cork changed first in the U20 final and then Galway changed for the minor,” Wall said.

“I did talk to a couple of people who I thought would be enlightened and they said to me, ‘Losers change,’ which I thought was ridiculous.

“As it turned out, Cork won both games, so the moral of the story is the team that’s better wins, but why would you potentially disadvantage yourself unnecessarily?

“It’s hard enough to play the game at the top level without the opposition wearing the same colours as you.