Final thoughts still fresh for old foes

All-Ireland SHC/Limerick v Kilkenny: Tomorrow for the first time in 31 years Kilkenny and Limerick meet in the championship. For some that 1974 All-Ireland final is a post-script to the previous year's but maybe that's just because Kilkenny winning the McCarthy Cup lacks the novelty of a Limerick success.

Should the Leinster champions confirm their favouritism in this weekend's Guinness All-Ireland hurling quarter-final, it will mean Limerick will have waited for the title at least as long as the 33 years that separated the 1973 team from the county's previous success back in the days of Mick Mackey.

But that defeat by Limerick isn't merely a disposable memory for Kilkenny. Had the county won that year's All-Ireland, they would in theory have plugged the one gap in a potential four-in-a-row from 1972-'75.

By strange coincidence both of tomorrow's managers played in 1973 as late call-ups to their teams.

Limerick's Joe McKenna had impressed in training during the weeks leading up to the final and his form convinced the selectors they could make the famous switch of Eamonn Cregan to centre back without weakening the attack. McKenna moved to centre forward after half-time and both curbed the influence of Pat Henderson and provided a vital target for clearances, playing a significant role in Limerick's turning the screw in the second half.

Kilkenny's manager tomorrow Brian Cody had captained the 1972 All-Ireland winning minors but was called up as a blizzard of injuries engulfed the team. It was a tall order. He told Thursday's Examiner when asked about the match: "What do I remember? We didn't win."

Although Cregan remembers that "he played well for someone just out of minor and drafted into the team", Cody was overlooked the following year before re-establishing himself on the team for the 1975 All-Ireland win against Galway.

Those injuries provided further angst for Kilkenny in that many in the county firmly believe that, but for injury, they would have won that final. Eddie Keher is on the record as saying that the 1973 Leinster final team was the best he had played for.

"It was one of our best performances," says goalkeeper Noel Skehan, who rated the 1973 provincial win as one of Kilkenny's three most memorable displays during his career. "No doubt. And Wexford were a hell of a good team."

There were, however, contemporary views that believed Limerick's momentum was unstoppable that year.

SPEAKING TO the late Raymond Smith, Tipperary's three-time All-Ireland medallist Mick Roche expressed that view and struck a prophetic note. "The way Limerick hurled on the day, particularly in the second half, there was no way they could have been beaten. I do not think they will ever strike the same form again."

Jim Langton, who had captained Kilkenny in their previous All-Ireland final against Limerick in 1940, agreed.

"I know we were under a very heavy handicap in the All-Ireland final but remember they were right on top of their game. It was Limerick's year and nothing was going to stop them, I believe now, on that first Sunday in September."

Such hypotheses can't be proved but the county's injury list was as drastic as any county has ever carried into an All-Ireland. Established forwards Keher and Kieran Purcell (who did make an appearance as a replacement) were injured in the run-up to the match, adding to the earlier injury to Jim Treacy and the departure of wing back Eamonn Morrissey. All four had been on the side that won the All-Ireland in 1972.

"It only happened in the last fortnight that we lost Purcell and Keher," remembers Skehan. "We were already getting over the loss of Eamonn Morrissey, who emigrated to Australia after the Leinster final - which was a huge shock. We were still coming to terms with that. Remember back in 1973 there was only 21 on a panel. Two or three injuries and you had to call up players. Now you can have 30 on a panel. But we were bringing people onto the team who hadn't even been training with us."

There was more to come. Chunky O'Brien received an eye injury at the throw-in and his centrefield partner, Frank Cummins - one of the most influential players of the era - had to be replaced in the second half because of a recurrence of a shoulder injury.

Skehan, as befits a man with eight All-Ireland medals, is philosophical about it at this stage and says the team wasn't demoralised by its problems.

"No because it also means that you have to put in a bigger effort and the players coming in want to prove themselves. Who says even if we had those players that it would have gone any better? And maybe if we had won in 1973, we wouldn't have in '74."

It would be a source of resentment in Limerick that they ended up with fewer All Stars than Kilkenny in 1973. They had reached the NHL final in the spring, emerged from an ultra-competitive Munster championship and won the All-Ireland. Kilkenny were league semi-finalists that year and had won Leinster with that blistering display against NHL winners Wexford.

Limerick's Cregan feels the reaction to that match was disproportionate. "I think it was forgotten that Kilkenny had only one big performance that year," he says, "while we had three."

IN THOSE pre-qualifier, pre-All-Ireland series days that's all teams had to do to get as far as September. The only business outside of the Munster and Leinster championships saw Galway lose to London, who in turn were comfortably beaten by Limerick. Cregan was a key figure in Limerick's memorable year.

A prolific forward, he had scored two goals in the famous 1973 Munster final, decided by Richie Bennis's disputed last-minute 65, when Tipperary had been defeated 6-7 to 2-18. Facing into the All-Ireland final it was obvious to Limerick that in the absence of Keher and Purcell, centre forward Pat Delaney would be Kilkenny's main threat. A big, strong presence on the 40, he had the potential to establish a winning platform.

Coach Jackie Power and manager Dr Dick Stokes - survivors of the 1940 All-Ireland triumph - decided on Power's prompting that Cregan would be the man to mark Delaney. The management had already made significant switches in the team after the league final defeat by Wexford. Ned Rea, who was uncomfortable at full back, got switched to the front and his physicality at full forward made him a hugely effective game breaker during the championship.

"My game plan was based on the Leinster final," says Cregan about his All-Ireland task. "I looked at that closely to study his style. More often than not he put his hand up for the ball and turned. My job was to prevent him doing that. He was under two disadvantages: he didn't know me as a centre back and he didn't know that my stronger side was on the left.

"So when he had his left hand up for the ball and the hurley in his right hand to protect it, right to left, I was pulling left to right. I played a lot of club hurling at centre back, including the 1971 county final against South Liberties. The position wasn't unusual for me and I had Seán Foley tidying up behind me."

Delaney did score a goal but it was a collective failure with Cregan and others on the goal line not reacting quickly enough when a 20-metre free had been blocked.

Otherwise Cregan's performance was vital. Mick Mackey judged him man of the match: "He looked for a colleague every time he cleared the ball and overall played a very intelligent game."

Maybe it's encouraging for Limerick to recall that the season had started in controversy. Team trainer Joe McGrath had been replaced by Cregan's brother Michael, an army officer and former Limerick player whose county career had been terminated by injury. Some players left the panel in protest but the team management pressed ahead with those who were ready to commit. A couple of good early league displays - in those days played before Christmas - against Cork and Tipperary and the rest of the panel returned.

"My brother planned it like a militarymanoeuvre, from the first Tuesday in January to the week before the All-Ireland final," according to Cregan. "That was the aim and we trained twice a week with a match at the weekend. Coming up to the Munster final we did four days a week, which was intensive by the standards of the time."

One man with a unique perspective on those years is Matt Ruth. A Kilkenny teacher living in Limerick he was an enthusiastic supporter of his county's hurlers. He hadn't been picked for any representative under-age teams but was hurling with Old Christians.

"I was down in Limerick teaching in 1973 and '74 and I was picked for Limerick early in the first year. Then - and this is a fairly well known - I went and played in the National Football League for Kilkenny who turned up in Limerick without enough players - usual story. So I was semi-suspended for a lot of that year. I looked for reinstatement and got it in August but it was too late to get back into the panel."

He watched the final in ambivalent humour. "It felt very odd. I didn't expect it - not that I didn't think Limerick would be in the final but I didn't expect they'd be playing Kilkenny."

So who was he up for?

"I'd prefer not to say. In reality though I'd always been a big supporter of Kilkenny."

The following season there would be no room for ambivalence as Ruth was again called up and this time started the All-Ireland final.

"It was very strange at first but the team spirit built up over the year and I was very much part of that. Come the final there was no holding back. I was there to do my best for Limerick. My marker was Pat Lawlor and I knew him well. I remember it very clearly. I realised this could be my only chance to play in an All-Ireland.

"It was nerve wracking running out to all the roaring and shouting but once the match starts you concentrate. I pulled on one chance and stuck it in the net but that was disallowed for a square ball. Then I'd a couple of shots saved by Noel Skehan. Kilkenny got a couple of lucky scores."

BAD LUCK or not, Limerick weren't going as well by 1974 according to Cregan. "Some players were under the impression they were training as hard as they had the year before. They weren't. The celebrations took a toll but we weren't training hard enough. Six weeks before the final, the trainer (Michael Cregan) took us in and told us bluntly we hadn't trained well and that Kilkenny would beat us. That focused a lot of minds but just six weeks of working hard is no good."

Ruth shares the overview but differs as to cause and effect. "I'd say Limerick had lost a bit of their edge and wouldn't have been quite as hungry as Kilkenny. They also had something to prove and had their full team out. I think they might have trained too hard. Mickey Cregan was a tough trainer. We did lots of hard sprint running and push-ups. Maybe they were a bit burned out by the second year."

Skehan remembers the 1974 final as one that, despite a lightning start by Limerick who raced into an early, five-point lead, Kilkenny always controlled.

Ruth had moved to Dublin by the following year and re-registered with his home club, St Patrick's Ballyraggett, and having sat out the league, as he had to do before transferring, was asked into the Kilkenny panel for the championship. He went on to win two All-Irelands with his county in the finals of 1975 and '79 but remembers with affection the county that gave him his start.

"I've always had a bit of a grá for Limerick and like things to go well for them."

But not this weekend? "No."

Skehan, a selector with Kilkenny until last year, is anxious about tomorrow's match in spite - or maybe because - of his county's overwhelming favouritism. "I just wish to God it was over and that we'd won by a point."

Cregan would emulate Ruth's experience when managing Offaly against Limerick in the 1994 final and had two stints in charge of his own county. Despite the memories of 1973, he is downbeat about the past. "Two All-Irelands in 65 years. There's been a succession of managers - all of them with Limerick's best interests at heart but you've the same county board and officials. If Limerick hurling was a business, it would be bankrupt 100 times over."