Strive for five - Rebels looking to change course of history

When it comes to trying to divine what may happen in upcoming sporting endeavours, many of us are guilty of looking to the past and trying to extrapolate something to tell us the future.

If and when Cork next meet Galway in an All-Ireland hurling final, you can be sure that some weight will be given to how the Rebels have never lost to the Tribesmen in a decider; equally, a football clash with Kerry in Croke Park would have added foreboding based on the failure to beat the Kingdom there across seven meetings between 2002 and 2009 inclusive.

Even in an age of improved data analysis and better coaching and strength & conditioning than ever before, significance will be attached to superstition and piseogs. After Tipperary beat Cork in the 2020 Munster SFC final wearing a special jersey commemorating Bloody Sunday, there were calls for it to be worn in the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo rather than the traditional blue and gold – as if the victory was more to do with the shirts rather than the players wearing them. By the same token, it can hardly have been coincidence that, when David Clifford became Kerry captain, he was given the number 14 jersey, having previously had 13 – no Kingdom skipper has lifted the Sam Maguire Cup wearing 13.

Even so, we look for the patterns – though, with regard to Cork hurling and years ending in ‘5’, it may be better not to.

With 30 All-Ireland titles and ten possibilities in which a year can end, it would be nice and tidy if there were three wins for each number, but things rarely if ever work so neatly.

In terms of Cork’s successes, years ending in ‘4’ and ‘6’ hold sway with five victories each – one hardly needs reminding how close we came to witnessing another of the former last summer.

There have been four victories each for years ending in ‘2’ and ‘3’, three each for ‘0’ and ‘9’, two each for ‘1’ and ‘8’. The remaining two digits have one win each – 1977 was the first and only time Cork claimed victory in a year finishing in ‘7’ and the county’s last win, 2005, was similarly ground-breaking.

The 2005 Munster title was Cork’s fifth time to do so in a year ending in ‘5’. Ten years ago, the 2015 campaign came to a disappointing end with an All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Galway, while in 1995 there was a Munster semi-final defeat to Clare – though the win over Kerry that year was Cork’s only one in the championship between 1992 and 1999.

Thankfully, as 2025 begins, the portents are certainly brighter than they were 30 years ago – though whether the two-decade wait for Liam MacCarthy ends is another question.