Nicky Lambert rattled the shit out of the Limerick full back line that day.
Fitzy has another 21 here. He surely canât do it again
In the 07 Munster final we pushed (I cant remember who) out the field and left Dan isolated inside. He did untold after that. Had we kept our shape , we were in with a shot.
I agree about the Limerick game last year. I was beside myself for the whole game and Iâm not afraid to admit I shed a tear at the end. KK hurling owes me or any of us nothing and still they stepped up and won against an excellent team.
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That defeat could well be the best thing to have happened this Limerick team.
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My expectation that Kildare would win that match was such that itâs neither a long grass one nor an unexpected win. I thought Kildare had a reasonable chance of winning given it was at home but I wasnât so bullish that I thought an ambush of Mayo was definitely on the cards and that the media would be proved wrong.
On the Mayo side of that coin, it wasnât a flat performance, the players died with their boots on. Nor was it an unexpected moral victory in defeat.
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Flattest performance -
Munster Semi final 98, came in cold but Waterford had breezed past Kerry so you would be expecting a good rattle, never materialised. Coming off 97 it was a hole opening by a decent side tbf, but Tipp were poor.
Toughest defeat to swollow -
Clare 95-99 was always tough viewing, 99 drawn game was a glimpse of hope which was ruthlessly buried the following Saturday afternoon.
Munster Final v Cork 2006 followed by Waterford in HQ wasnât nice either.
Most unexpected victory -
2009 All Ireland semi final winning margin.
Most unexpected moral victory -
Probably 2004 Qualifier defeat to Cork in Killarney, expectations were low. Cork were a serious side tbf so Tipp led by Eoin Kelly put up a decent fight against the incumbent Champions.
Best long grass victory -
Canât really remember any real long grass moments ( likes of Tipp, Cork & KK are never in the long grass ) but you could say the run to AI Final in 2014 after semi final defeat in Munster sweet. Beat Galway & Cork when both were fancied to cause upsets.
Some day out. Three of us in my cousinâs Caddy heading down. Roaster carvery at midday. Five pints before the match. Few pints on way back. Into Nenagh that night. Feed of pints. Toome lads fighting on the street at 3am. Home.
Rotten one. Drawn match was bang in the middle of the leaving cert and the mother wouldnât let me travel to Cork 
jesus i posted about this game on a thread a while back - its never really spoken about - christ almighty in tension the croke park that day was unbeleivable- remember it , a dull muggy day, Curran sent every puck out back into the canal in the second half, it was a ferocious match, davy was watching the clare half forward line collpase and every puck out rain back in, it was incredible drama
i stopped following GAA seriously after 2005, nothing to do with this game i just grew out of it as i started to really hate the personalities involved, by 2007 and the row between cork and clare i was absolutely done with it- i couldnt stand any of them anymore , that game was devoid of all dignity - i went to it on my own and left early - ive gotten back into it now - gaelic football especially- i find it immensely enjoyable to watch a game up close
i would say one of my best memories is of timmy kelleher i think decapitating a tipp player in the pissing rain in a league semi final in thurles in 1993, that and cork beating clare in 2003 but tbh if someone erased the whole lot from my memory i wouldnt care less
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actually limerick and cork in 2001 was the best game i was ever at
Unexpected Moral Victory - 2013 in Ennis against the team who would go on to win the All Ireland. Donât think weâd ever beaten Clare in championship and theyâd normally hammer us. We just wouldnât die. Conor Mac was still a minor and made his debut. Guiney scored a super goal at the end and we got a draw.
Extra time beckons and the ref wonât allow attention come on while Mossy Waters leg is nearly decapitated beside him and Mark Fanning keeps pucking the ball out. Clare score 3 odd points while this is all happening and pull away handily enough. They get the fright of their lives and then in an All Ireland while we slip away into obscurity. Probably a game that sums up the Liam Dunne era unfortunately.
Best long grass victory - 2004 Leinster Semi without a doubt. A group of us couldnât believe the bookies prices and the sentiment. On the Thursday before the game Wexford had a 10 point handicap and were as big as 10/1. We all had a cut. The price didnât move so we went in again.
On the Saturday a group of us were working at the Red Hot Chilli Peppers concert in the Phoenix Park. Apparently The Pixies overshadowed them. We didnât care as we were talking nothing but hurling and how weâd beat KK. The price was still 10/1 so we had another go. It eventually moved into 13/2 on Sunday morning.
Sunday rolls around and itâs just one of those mornings you sense is gonna be special. A nice couple of pints in Quinnâs before the game. Nice sunny June afternoon. We put it up to KK like we all expect even though the media wrote us off. Bit of shadow boxing in the first half but weâre close enough. Paul Carley is running the bollocks out of himself for Fitzys puckouts. Fast Eddie gets a goal straight after half time, normally that would be the end of us, but not today.
Rory Jacob swings at a high hopeful ball and in it goes. Last minute, Fitzy makes a point blank save and the ball lands to DJ, fucking DJ of all lads but he blazes over.
3 mins into injury time and a line ball in front of us. We all agree, Fenno needs to drop it in. Weâll be murdered in a replay. Fenno mishits it short. Peter Barry gets the easiest catch of his life until Mick Jacob says, ânot todayâ and before we know it Cody is collapsed in a heap. Anarchy. Mayhem. Madness. Absolute fucking delirium. Whistle goes and weâre all on the pitch. Sure we expected this didnât we? Ah we did, but not like this. We all half expected a trophy to be presented before realising it was a semi final.
The sun shone into the back yard in Quinnâs like never before. As the sun disappeared we go inside to see England 1-0 up against France coming into the end of the game. Zidane says ânot todayâ with a helping hand from David James.
I think we were escorted out of the Colossus Casino at about 7am Monday morning having been told that weâd had enough. The Quinnâs / Flannerys / Copperâs axis had left itâs mark. If Carlsberg did SundaysâŚ
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Flattest performance - 2008, Leinster football final, Jesus Christ
Toughest defeat to swollow - 2011 (I think) losing to Limerick after being 5 points up and a man up with about 10 minutes to go, the ref screwed us as well
Most unexpected victory - a day when you expected to be hockeyed but someone played about themselves and won.
Beating Armagh in 2008, Wexford footballers were in an all Ireland semi-final, what the fuck?
Most unexpected moral victory -
ehh
Best long grass victory - a day when you fully expected the team to win but were written off in all quarters and you had the last laugh.
2008 versus Meath, 10 points down, Matty scoring the winnerâŚ
Flattest performance - â98 final against Offaly. After beating them handy enough in Leinster, i (naively thought) weâd just have to turn up. A game which just never really got going for them. The Whelahan story took over and KK couldnât cope
Toughest defeat to swollow - â99 final defeat to Cork. Standing on the hill in the rain watching Cork pick them off point by point listening to their fans singing the banks
Most unexpected victory - â15 final win against Galway. A KK team with the stars of the past gone, struggling in the first half, the writing was on the wall. Fennelly grabbed the game by the scruff and Galway folded
Most unexpected moral victory - not many but â97 semi v Clare springs to mind. Clare well on top and already celebrating victory until DJ got the ball and momentarily put the shits up them. Iâve rarely seen such a jubilant crowd collectively recoil and start chewing finger nails
Best long grass victory - quarter and semi â19. KK written off on both occasions. I was confident weâd take care of an overrated cork and felt theyâd give Limerick a good rattle. Thereâs not many games Iâve enjoyed as much as the win against Limerick
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Watched the highlights of both of these again this evening. Youâd see the names in the starting line up and wonder how we got to an AI semi final. I completely forgot that we played the 2nd half of the Tyrone game without Mattie too.
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Flattest performance - Plenty of no shows here, Kilkenny in 04 was just a massacre. The 2013 leinster final was another blood draining from your face job but the one that sticks in my craw is 2011 v waterford. Weâd beaten clare and cork easily so werenât coming in raw, waterford had just shipped 7 goals in the munster final so weâre clearly gonna be hurt but i knew after 10 minutes it was all over. Waterford were battling to prove a point, galway were just counting the minutes down, shying from hard tackles, gave up. Sickening.
Toughest defeat to swollow - played well in the 2001 final, tried hard but let in a few sucker goals and got plenty of harsh calls by tipp fan pat o connor. Could have and should have won it. Beaten by the better team in 05 and played poorly. Sure could have won the first day in 12 and 15 but even with those leads I didnât see us winning it.
Most unexpected victory - Kilkenny 2001 hands down. Rumours that Mike Mac had refused to molly coddle them and low and behold it proved correct. 05 was a roller coaster but was just a mental game but we walked all over them in 2001 all over Codyâs Kilkenny. 2012 up there too.
Most unexpected moral victory - galway are always hyped a bit by bored and lazy writers âwhy arenât galway more successfulâ articles trotted out every year so rare we are expected to get a trimming. 2007 v kk I guess. Nothin expected but they went out mean, i remember tan and Kennedy pulling high and late on hands, just werenât goin to agree to the script that we were Cannon fodder. Rattled the best team ever too for 60+ minutes.
Best long grass victory - im not sure Iâve ever fully expected galway to win a big game thered always be a doubt. Weâve a fatalistic nature. I remember a big gang of us sitting together in 2005 v kk, we were 12 points up i think with ten minutes left and all we were repeating to each other was theyâll fucking blow it. And the margin was brought back to one at one stage.
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Galways victory that day was well flagged up on here
Yup, Brian Higgins. He was only two hands higher than a duck, but he lorded it that day.