Beating Tipperary in an All Ireland Final in Croke Park is another pre-requisite for any great hurling side. Kilkenny 2009, Clare 1997, Galway 1988 and Wexford 1968 all classics of this genre.
We need a defined list of criteria for the truly GREAT All Ireland Hurling Championship wins. Maybe @Cheasty could help out.
I was surprised when they only beat Limerick by a point in that quarter-final alright. They did overcome their old nemesis Waterford in a pulsating semi-final thereafter though and were warm favourites against a Kilkenny team minus JJ Delaney. They were going for a 3 in a row after all and that coup is widely regarded as one of Kilkennyās greatest final victories. Age wise that Cork team were still very much in their prime so it made the fall-off in subsequent years all the more surprising.
Iād love to get @Malarkey list of his favourite ever Kilkenny hurling victories.
Iād imagine the 2006 and 2009 Finalās would be very high up there and also the 2002 Semi Final which was a huge deal for Kilkenny.
My KK pals would say 2011 after Woodlocks comments in the stadium the year before.
After the 2014 drawn final the general talk was that it had been an excellent game and very exciting but didnāt quite have the cut of the 2009 and 2010 finals, that it had been too ācleanā.
Iāve never watched the 2014 replay back but my feeling is it is underrated not just as a victory for Kilkenny - I think it might be Kilkennyās most satisfying victory of the entire Cody era - but as a final - my recollection is it had more cut than the drawn game, certainly it was much lower scoring.
Personally 2010 is my favourite Tipp-Kilkenny final of the era, a nose in front of 2009. I think strategically placed goals in finals are a major feature of making a great final, which is where 2009 fell down a little.
David Walsh of The Sunday Times wrote an article after that one alright.
This is a direct quote:
Iāve met many Tipperary people down through the years and when they tell where theyāre from, I canāt help myself. āFirst thing I learned to hate in life was Tipperary. Happened when I was five years old.ā I donāt tell them that the older Iāve got the worse Iāve become. When youāre a boy and Ollie Walsh is your hero and Sean McLoughlin comes barging into the square, gets close enough to see the whites in Ollieās eyes and then hand-passes the ball into the roof of the net, youāre left with the post traumatic stress. Ollie was so good and that was so wrong. They banned the hand-passed goal far too late.
Tipp 2010 is a great All-Ireland but has slight minus points because it was through the back door. There will always be a slight stench that that Tipp team went to Cork and were utterly destroyed by Aisake OāHailpĆn. And that Cody lost his mind and picked his walking wounded, some of whom quickly were not walking.
Tipp 1991 is a great All-Ireland.
Clare 1997 is a great All-Ireland.
Kilkenny 2003 should be a great All-Ireland given they beat Tipp and Cork but Tipp were well on the way down by then and Cork were very green, and the final was an atrocious game.
As I said in my previous post I think 2014 is Kilkennyās best All-Ireland of the modern era. But I think if Kilkenny win this All-Ireland it will be right up there with their very best, possibly better than 2014.
In football Tyrone 2005 is up there but again thereās the caveat that it was a back door All-Ireland.
Armagh in 2002 won the Al-Ireland by winning Ulster, beating Tyrone along the way, then beat Dublin and Kerry by a point each. I donāt think it gets much better.
1983 is my favourite Dublin All-Ireland but I think 1976 is the best one.
Iād rank Down 1991 and Derry 1993 highly.
Derry 1993 brings to mind a genre of All-Ireland I think is interesting - the ones where the semi-final is more remembered than the final.
Tipp 2016 is an underrated one. Coming from the first round of Munster and beating Cork, Limerick, Waterford, Galway and Kilkenny. By 2019, all those opponents bar Cork (2021) had appeared in an All Ireland finals after '16.
Cork Limerick and Waterford werenāt any great shakes in 2016. Galway were a serious team and really underachieved in around those few years.
Waterford were in the All Ireland final 12 months later. They had the HOTY in 2016.
Cork and Limerick were shite. Waterford won the league and pushed Kilkenny to the brink. Waterford were probably better in 2016 than they were in 2017.
Fair enough I stand corrected on Waterford. The few semis between Galway and Tipp were the best games of those few years.
Case closed
The 15-17 games were iconic. The '15 semi was one of the blots on the EOS era. They made the mistake of looking ahead to the final already.
I was in Paris for that game. A mouthy Tipp wan made a beeline for me in the pub and regaled me with how Seamie was going to destroy us. He did indeed but she was the one meekly bringing me a pint as I basked in the sunshine in Chalelet.
Did you Chatalot?
We did, she was very gracious in defeat.
Cork in 2006 was the foundation stone victory ā but, for me, the games against Tipp, starting with the brilliant one in 2002.
That Tipp teams bubble was burst after the Munster final loss in 2002.
Waterford āshouldā have beaten Kilkenny in 2016. We went three points up with 10 minutes to go then pulled back to protect the lead, hit 5 wides in a row and got caught with a goal, drew and lost the replay. We were never quite the same team after. The HOTY award never sat well on Austin Gleeson and he never hurled as well again. However if we had got to the final Tipp would have murdered us. They had our number and had beaten us by 21 points in the Munster final.