Christy O'Connor on why Cork and Meath are ready to rise back to the top

On the morning of the 1999 All-Ireland football final, Colm O’Rourke wrote in the Sunday Independent about his experience of the Cork-Meath rivalry and the huge battles both sides waged against each other from 1987-’90.

O’Rourke went into great detail about those games, particularly the four All-Ireland finals in 1987, 1988 (including the replay) and 1990, and the bad blood that was constantly stirred between both sets of players.

“When you rake through history the danger exists that you will resurrect dormant bitterness,” wrote O’Rourke. “However, those games were hardly advertisements for some of the finer points of Gaelic football. Bad feeling did linger for a while, but what comes around, goes around.” 

O’Rourke was primarily referring to the 1988 games, particularly the replay. That defeat left a sour taste in Cork mouths but they got their revenge two years later in the 1990 final.

That time, Cork were reduced to 14 men, just as Meath had been in the 1988 replay. “It was another bad game,” wrote O’Rourke. “The match probably settled all the scores.” 

Scores were definitely settled. Cork had won the previous year’s All-Ireland against Mayo but the 1990 success was the sweetest imaginable for those players when beating Meath in the final.

The rivalry naturally cooled again afterwards when both sides moved off the main stage but the next time Cork and Meath did meet in championship, it was almost apt that it was in another All-Ireland final – in 1999.

Similar to those previous deciders between the pair, it was another poor game where the winners again slogged, rather than purred, their way to the title. 

Cork had the chances to win but they only managed 1-2 from play, and only amassed 1-8 in total.

That was just the sixth championship meeting between the counties, all of which had been in All-Ireland finals. Meath and Cork have only met in the championship on two occasions in the intervening 27 years – the 2007 All-Ireland semi-final and a round-robin meeting last year.

Whenever the sides do meet in big games though – which has now extended to Division 2 league matches when their championship meetings have been so infrequent – the history of the relationship between 1987-’90 is always dredged up.

At this stage, those stories have been rehashed to such an extent that it’s almost patronising for the current generation to have to continue to listen to what Cork and Meath used to do when it’s long been time for Cork and Meath to do something new themselves and write their own chapters of history.

RISING

For all the talk about Cork’s struggles over the last 15 years, Meath were in the horrors for most of the last two decades until the team finally turned a corner last year under Robbie Brennan. 

Meath are finally looking up now. And so are Cork.

Cork-Meath will always evoke special memories but one of the reasons their history dominates the discussion whenever they meet is because Cork have had so few footballing rivalries over the years.

Apart from the constant one with Kerry and sporadic rivalries with Munster counties during various periods (Cork and Clare met in five huge games between 1993-’97), the only two real rivalries Cork have had outside of Munster were that epoch-defining rivalry with Meath, albeit over a short period, and against Dublin.

Much of the Cork-Dublin history is rooted as far back as the 1890s and 1900s, and a handful of big Cork-Dublin games between 1983 and 2013.

Cork-Dublin always gains further traction too whenever they meet because it’s billed as a battle between the counties with the two biggest populations in the country.

That history first began when Dublin beat Cork in six All-Ireland finals, 1891-1907. The Dubs also beat Cork in the 1901 Home final, which was played in July 1903.

It took 66 years for the counties to meet again in the championship when Dublin beat Cork (then All-Ireland champions) in the 1974 All-Ireland semi-final. They also met in an iconic All-Ireland semi-final saga in 1983, when the replay was staged in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, before Cork finally beat the Dubs (which was the counties' 12th championship meeting) in the 1989 All-Ireland semi-final.

In the intervening 37 years, Cork and Dublin clashed on six more occasions; two more All-Ireland semi-finals (1995 and 2010) two All-Ireland quarter-finals (2013 and 2022), the Super 8s (2019) and last year’s preliminary All-Ireland quarter-final.

The 1983 saga has got plenty of newsprint, radio and podcast spins but anytime Cork and Dublin meet in the championship, there isn’t the same focus played on their history like there is when Cork and Meath square up.

ICONIC

That is a testament to how iconic – and fractious – the relationship was at that time, but the only way that Cork and Meath can really move on from constantly referring back to that period (whenever they do meet) is by both counties getting back to a position where they are consistently challenging for All-Irelands again.

If they are, the law of averages states that Cork and Meath will start meeting more often again on the big stage. And if they do, the storied relationship and rivalry between both counties will get a much better chance to grow and develop rather than constantly feeling like it’s trying to be reheated for greater effect.

With the old days having so little relevance for the current players, its time now for both groups to start writing a whole new history. And Sunday’s Division 2 final is as good a place as any to start.