IF Kerry or Cork go on to win this year’s All-Ireland you can almost guarantee that a few people will cite the ‘handiness’ of the Munster Championship as a significant factor in their success.
When – and it’s most likely ‘when’ not ‘if’ – they both make it into the All-Ireland quarter-finals we’ll probably hear that moan.
Yet the reality is that Kerry win so many All-Irelands because they usually have better players than everyone else, while Cork’s rarer successes are due to the same reason in those seasons.
There’s a simple response to dismiss that theory outlined above: Connacht.
Six teams compete in both provinces (let’s be honest, New York doesn’t really count in Connacht), so the structure and number of games are basically the same.
However, Connacht has only collected 14 All-Ireland SFC titles overall, compared to 50 for Munster.
It’s hard to argue there’s greater strength-in-depth out west either.
As with Kerry and Cork in Munster, the western province basically boils down to Galway and Mayo, at least in terms of teams challenging for the All-Ireland crown.
Yes, the Rossies won Connacht in 2010, as did Sligo in 2007, but it’s 71 years since Roscommon won the All-Ireland, 35 since they reached the final.
Galway haven’t beaten Mayo since the 2008 Connacht final, and they’ve met them five times since then in provincial combat. So Connacht is barely more competitive than Munster.
Yet that ‘easy route’, with the provincial champions usually only having to play two games and win one big match, hasn’t translated into the Sam Maguire regularly heading west.
Infamously, Mayo haven’t been All-Ireland champions since 1951, while Galway’s last triumph came 14 years ago. Indeed, Sam didn’t make his home in Connacht at all between 1966 and 1998.
Much has been made of Mayo losing seven All-Ireland finals over the past quarter-century – but Cork have lost six from 1987 onwards (albeit with the big difference that they did win in 1989, 1990 and 2010).
There’s often the suggestion, unspoken or otherwise, that Kerry or Cork ‘only have to win one real match’ – but, as Sunday’s dramatic drawn final again proved, what a match.
The 12-point thrashing Kerry handed out in last year’s final was the exception, not the rule. Indeed, when Kerry meet Cork in Munster it’s usually a close contest, certainly when they first clash.
Two years ago Kerry won the final by two points, three years ago Cork won by five in the semi-final.
In 2011 Kerry took the decider by three, the year before they drew; indeed they drew twice before the Kingdom won by just one point after extra time in a semi-final replay – but the Rebels had the last laugh that year.
2009 had also produced a draw before Cork made the Munster final, the Rebels retaining the crown after a five-point final win over Kerry in 2008. The Kingdom edged the 2007 Final by two, there was a draw in 2006, and Kerry won the 2005 decider by three.
2004 had an anomaly, an eight-point win for Kerry, but Cork were at a low ebb then, having been beaten by 10 points by Limerick in the 2003 Munster quarter-final.
Yet the Rebels had beaten Kerry by three points in a 2002 semi-final replay, revenge of sorts for a final defeat by the same margin the previous year.
The wider perception of the rivalry is perhaps coloured by Kerry’s dominance of their neighbours on the All-Ireland stage, beating them in the 2009 and 2007 All-Ireland finals, and the semi-finals of 2002, 2005, 2006, and 2008 (in a replay).
However, when we’re talking about their meetings in Munster the recent record is much closer – of 18 provincial meetings in the qualifier era, Kerry have won eight, Cork five, with five draws now.
That wasn’t the case during the ‘Kerry Golden Years’, when their manager Mick O’Dwyer’s labelling of Cork as ‘the second best team in Ireland’ didn’t bear much scrutiny.
The Kingdom won 11 out of 12 Munster Finals from 1975 to 1986 by an average winning margin of almost nine points (albeit after draws in 1976 and ’82).
Nowadays the Kingdom regularly loses to the Rebels – in 2012, 2009, 2008, 2006, and 2002.
Kerry went on to reach the All-Ireland final in four of those five seasons, only missing out in 2012 when they were beaten in the quarter-finals by the eventual champions Donegal.
But that’s due to the ‘back door’ system, not the Munster championship, with Kerry proving their quality by winning all their 11 Qualifiers so far.
Cork are pretty good in the Qualifiers too, with nine wins from 12 outings. Indeed, even when Kerry did beat Cork in the 2010 Munster semi-final, the Rebels went on to lift the Sam Maguire.
Putting the national successes of Kerry and Cork down to the Munster Championship format is rather like suggesting that Real Madrid and Barcelona only win so many European Cups/Champions Leagues because those two clubs dominate La Liga.
By that logic, Celtic and Rangers would also regularly collect European club football’s biggest trophy, yet the reality is that it’s a long time since either of them won the big one (yes, I know only one has, just can’t remember which).
It’s generally agreed that the Ulster SFC is the most competitive, but that hasn’t stopped the number of All-Irelands coming north increasing over the past
quarter-century.
Dublin have won nine of the last 10 Leinsters, and will surely win this year too, but that ‘easy’ province has still only led to two recent All-Irelands for the Dubs. Those have come not because Leinster is weak, but due to Dublin having had extremely strong sides.
No one will dismiss Donegal if they win this year’s Ulster final on the basis that they’ve had four matches, including tough tests against Tyrone and Derry – and probably against Monaghan in the decider.
There are a few reasons why Kerry and Cork keep contesting and winning All-Ireland finals – but an easy provincial Championship isn’t really one of them.
The format could be made ‘fairer’, ensuring that every county had to win a quarter-final, semi-final, and final in order to collect a provincial Championship.
Yet the likelihood would be that Kerry and Cork would still win the vast majority of Munster titles, and would add a fair number of All-Ireland crowns as well.
