How provincial winners have fared in All-Ireland SHC semi-finals during round robin era
Cork's Patrick Horgan shoots from Limerick's Michael Casey during the Munster SHC final at TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick. Picture: Eddie O'Hare
As the Rebels gear up to face Dublin this weekend, the expectation is clear: Cork should progress.
The phrase ‘bonus territory’ is often thrown around when a team has exceeded expectations. The implication is that they’ve come as far as they can – and are unlikely to go any further.
Some managers lean into that mindset. Niall Ó Ceallacháin is not likely to be one of them.
His side tore up the script against Limerick, playing with 14 men and nothing to lose. That same mentality will be in play again on Saturday. And, as ever, it can go one of two ways: a convincing defeat or an astonishing upset. Having already delivered the latter, what’s to say they can’t do it again?
It’s been 64 years since Dublin reached an All-Ireland final, and nearly a century since they last beat Cork in the All-Ireland series. On paper, it’s Dublin who fit the ‘bonus territory’ tag this time – but they’ll see that as fuel, not a ceiling.
This is new ground for the Dubs. In five years of the round-robin format, they’d never gone beyond the quarter-final, until now. They come in as heavy underdogs, but teams reach a point where that label stops being a burden and starts being a weapon.
Saturday could be that moment.
Of the ten All-Ireland semi-finals played since the round-robin was introduced, provincial champions have won just five. Only twice has a team that entered through the preliminary quarter-finals gone on to knock out a provincial winner at this stage.
On both occasions, Cork and Limerick were involved.
In 2018, Limerick stunned Cork after the Rebels had won Munster.
That was also the first time in the round-robin era that both provincial champions were beaten in the semi-finals: Clare finally got over the line against Kilkenny at the third attempt, while Cork ended Limerick’s reign.
Kilkenny’s loss to Clare marked their only semi-final defeat in this era, having beaten Limerick in 2019 and twice seen off the Banner after that. And crucially, no Leinster champion has ever been beaten by a preliminary quarter-finalist. Tipperary will hope to change that this year.
As for Dublin, they haven’t beaten Cork in the All-Ireland series since 1927. But they can take encouragement from the fact that the last time Cork were Munster champions and faced a third-placed provincial team in the semi-final, they lost.
Granted, that was Limerick, at the start of a golden era. That’s not to suggest Dublin are about to win five of the next six All-Irelands, but patterns do change. And Dublin, lest we forget, are the ones who knocked out Limerick this time.
This year also marks the first time a beaten provincial finalist has not featured in either one of the semi-finals, while in the last four years, only one third-placed team has made it to this stage – Cork, who beat Dublin in last year’s quarter-final.
History says Cork should win. But it also says Cork won’t beat Dublin forever. That streak, eventually, will end.
Ó Ceallacháin’s men will believe that moment has arrived – no matter how slim the odds.
App?
