Cork and Kerry players march around Fitzgerald Stadium before the 2011 Munster SFC final.
The Fitzgerald Stadium factor: historic backdrop to Kerry v Cork in Killarney
Is there a mystical quality that surrounds those sunny summer days lounging on the terraces under MacGillycuddy’s Reeks? Or is the aura of Fitzgerald Stadium over-hyped?
THERE WAS A time, shortly after Kerry’s golden years era, when Cork victories at the Kingdom’s cathedral of football were becoming almost routine.
If you were a Rebel footballer from 1987 to 1995, you would’ve won four out of five championship trips to Fitzgerald Stadium.
“It’s great to beat this particular Kerry team,” said Teddy McCarthy that first afternoon. “A lot of them could well retire after this year, and it would not be the same if we were to wait another couple of years before dethroning them. It had to be now.”
The headlines were uniform in tone the next day: ‘The end of an era’. So it proved.
The mood was different in ‘95 as Cork collected their seventh Munster title in nine years. Still, manager Billy Morgan cast his mind back:
Every win over Kerry is a sweet one because I remember the bad days too well.”
Across the past 14 years of this once-mighty rivalry, those bad days have again cast a shadow over Cork football.
Before 1987, Kerry had won 11 of the previous 12 Munster titles. Now, it’s 12 of the past 13. Even when they were the best two teams in football at the close of the 2000s, the Killarney fortress never fell.
Not in 31 years have Cork beaten Kerry away from home. Across 13 games, that’s three draws and 10 defeats.
Their last final was the most one-sided match of their 137-year rivalry as Kerry piled a 22-point beating on their visitors.
Advertisement
A murder of crows fly over Fitzgerald Stadium during the 2021 Munster SFC final between Kerry and Cork. Brian Reilly-Troy / INPHO
Brian Reilly-Troy / INPHO / INPHO
Of the current squad, Brian Hurley is the only player to win a championship game there at any age grade. His victory came in the 2010 Munster minor final. No Cork player possesses a Munster senior medal.
Is there a mystical quality that surrounds those sunny summer days lounging on the terraces under MacGillycuddy’s Reeks? Or is the aura of Fitzgerald Stadium, which opened 90 years ago this month, over-hyped?
Following that 1995 loss to Cork, Kerry went 28 years and 35 matches without any defeat there. That said, their only other opponents in that time were repeat fixtures against Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford, and one-off encounters with Longford, Tyrone, Kildare, and Mayo.
Like Munster Rugby’s Thomond Park hegemony, all streaks must come to an end. It’s first and foremost teams, not stadiums, which foster unbeaten runs.
In the end, it was Mayo who stormed the Bastille with a 1-19 to 0-17 group-stage triumph in 2023.
The small sample size of Division 1 opposition will be ameliorated by the new open-draw format, with Donegal providing the biggest heavyweight bout since Tyrone’s 2012 visit.
When that sample is opened up to include occasional league encounters hosted at the venue, which Austin Stack Park in Tralee normally accommodates, the losses are more prominent. Between 2013 and 2017, Kerry went through a sequence of five defeats in seven Fitzgerald Stadium league fixtures, falling to Dublin, Derry, Mayo, Roscommon, and Monaghan.
There have also been three home beatings by Tyrone and a loss to Louth.
A view of MacGillycuddy’s Reeks from the press box at Fitzgerald Stadium. James Crombie / INPHO
James Crombie / INPHO / INPHO
Does Cork’s McGrath Cup final victory there in January hold any psychological significance? It depends on who you talk to.
When asked about the Rebels’ Fitzgerald Stadium record on C103, Chris Óg Jones was quick to correct the question: “We won the McGrath Cup there in January, so it hasn’t been 31 years, but in terms of championship, which is a completely different story, we haven’t won there in a while.
Those stats are there to be broken and that’s what we’re going to try and go down there and do.”
John Cleary, their manager who played in three Killarney victories, doesn’t reckon so: “Not really. It was two experimental teams, it was a 30-minute-a-side game, it was pre-season . . . It was nice, but it will have no bearing on what will happen in this game.”
Luke Fahy summed it up well, saying: “We’re going down to play Kerry – not Fitzgerald Stadium.”
Each Rebel player and mentor still speaks with some reverence about being brought to Killarney by their parents for those titanic tussles. For most of the West Cork heartlands, it’s their closest county ground.
Those games have been trending back towards closer contests in recent years, with the old rivals sharing three one-score games in the last three years, with Kerry on the right side each time.
There has been a turnover of players since that 2021 annihilation, where Kerry’s goals matched Cork’s entire output: 4-22 to 1-9.
Cork line up before the 2015 Munster SFC final replay. Donall Farmer / INPHO
Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO
Seán Meehan, Ian Maguire, and Ruairí Deane are the remaining Cork starters. Colm O’Callaghan came off the bench that day and will start on Sunday. Micheál Aodh Martin and Matty Taylor, who started in 2021, are named on the bench this time around. Twelve of the 20 players who featured that day are no longer on the panel.
Despite their injuries, Kerry have six starters holding their jerseys: Jason Foley, Mike Breen, Diarmuid O’Connor, David and Paudie Clifford, and Paul Geaney. Gavin White, who started, plus subs Tadhg Morley and Killian Spillane, are also involved this weekend. Just six of their 21 players who featured that day are no longer on the panel.
Revenge for their 2020 semi-final shock was the motivation Kerry poured into that 22-point reversal. After years of hurt and hunger for that Munster medal, Cork can’t lack for motivation in that regard.
The Kingdom will have a fresh angle, themselves, with the newly named Corn Pháidí Uí Shé up for grabs and the Kerry legend’s son-in-law, Paul Geaney, the potential recipient.
Amid such potent forces, the Fitzgerald Stadium factor may take a back seat.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Close
3 Comments
This is YOUR comments community. Stay civil, stay constructive, stay on topic.
Please familiarise yourself with our comments policy
here
before taking part.
The Fitzgerald Stadium factor: historic backdrop to Kerry v Cork in Killarney
THERE WAS A time, shortly after Kerry’s golden years era, when Cork victories at the Kingdom’s cathedral of football were becoming almost routine.
If you were a Rebel footballer from 1987 to 1995, you would’ve won four out of five championship trips to Fitzgerald Stadium.
“It’s great to beat this particular Kerry team,” said Teddy McCarthy that first afternoon. “A lot of them could well retire after this year, and it would not be the same if we were to wait another couple of years before dethroning them. It had to be now.”
The headlines were uniform in tone the next day: ‘The end of an era’. So it proved.
The mood was different in ‘95 as Cork collected their seventh Munster title in nine years. Still, manager Billy Morgan cast his mind back:
Across the past 14 years of this once-mighty rivalry, those bad days have again cast a shadow over Cork football.
Before 1987, Kerry had won 11 of the previous 12 Munster titles. Now, it’s 12 of the past 13. Even when they were the best two teams in football at the close of the 2000s, the Killarney fortress never fell.
Not in 31 years have Cork beaten Kerry away from home. Across 13 games, that’s three draws and 10 defeats.
Their last final was the most one-sided match of their 137-year rivalry as Kerry piled a 22-point beating on their visitors.
Of the current squad, Brian Hurley is the only player to win a championship game there at any age grade. His victory came in the 2010 Munster minor final. No Cork player possesses a Munster senior medal.
Is there a mystical quality that surrounds those sunny summer days lounging on the terraces under MacGillycuddy’s Reeks? Or is the aura of Fitzgerald Stadium, which opened 90 years ago this month, over-hyped?
Following that 1995 loss to Cork, Kerry went 28 years and 35 matches without any defeat there. That said, their only other opponents in that time were repeat fixtures against Clare, Limerick, Tipperary, and Waterford, and one-off encounters with Longford, Tyrone, Kildare, and Mayo.
Like Munster Rugby’s Thomond Park hegemony, all streaks must come to an end. It’s first and foremost teams, not stadiums, which foster unbeaten runs.
In the end, it was Mayo who stormed the Bastille with a 1-19 to 0-17 group-stage triumph in 2023.
The small sample size of Division 1 opposition will be ameliorated by the new open-draw format, with Donegal providing the biggest heavyweight bout since Tyrone’s 2012 visit.
When that sample is opened up to include occasional league encounters hosted at the venue, which Austin Stack Park in Tralee normally accommodates, the losses are more prominent. Between 2013 and 2017, Kerry went through a sequence of five defeats in seven Fitzgerald Stadium league fixtures, falling to Dublin, Derry, Mayo, Roscommon, and Monaghan.
There have also been three home beatings by Tyrone and a loss to Louth.
Does Cork’s McGrath Cup final victory there in January hold any psychological significance? It depends on who you talk to.
When asked about the Rebels’ Fitzgerald Stadium record on C103, Chris Óg Jones was quick to correct the question: “We won the McGrath Cup there in January, so it hasn’t been 31 years, but in terms of championship, which is a completely different story, we haven’t won there in a while.
John Cleary, their manager who played in three Killarney victories, doesn’t reckon so: “Not really. It was two experimental teams, it was a 30-minute-a-side game, it was pre-season . . . It was nice, but it will have no bearing on what will happen in this game.”
Luke Fahy summed it up well, saying: “We’re going down to play Kerry – not Fitzgerald Stadium.”
Each Rebel player and mentor still speaks with some reverence about being brought to Killarney by their parents for those titanic tussles. For most of the West Cork heartlands, it’s their closest county ground.
Those games have been trending back towards closer contests in recent years, with the old rivals sharing three one-score games in the last three years, with Kerry on the right side each time.
There has been a turnover of players since that 2021 annihilation, where Kerry’s goals matched Cork’s entire output: 4-22 to 1-9.
Seán Meehan, Ian Maguire, and Ruairí Deane are the remaining Cork starters. Colm O’Callaghan came off the bench that day and will start on Sunday. Micheál Aodh Martin and Matty Taylor, who started in 2021, are named on the bench this time around. Twelve of the 20 players who featured that day are no longer on the panel.
Despite their injuries, Kerry have six starters holding their jerseys: Jason Foley, Mike Breen, Diarmuid O’Connor, David and Paudie Clifford, and Paul Geaney. Gavin White, who started, plus subs Tadhg Morley and Killian Spillane, are also involved this weekend. Just six of their 21 players who featured that day are no longer on the panel.
Revenge for their 2020 semi-final shock was the motivation Kerry poured into that 22-point reversal. After years of hurt and hunger for that Munster medal, Cork can’t lack for motivation in that regard.
The Kingdom will have a fresh angle, themselves, with the newly named Corn Pháidí Uí Shé up for grabs and the Kerry legend’s son-in-law, Paul Geaney, the potential recipient.
Amid such potent forces, the Fitzgerald Stadium factor may take a back seat.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Cork GAA GAA Gaelic Football Kerry GAA Munster football final Munster SFC