THIS WEEKEND’S MEETING of Cork and Kilkenny evokes memories of two decades ago when they were the dominant pair of in the country.

While Limerick are the runaway leaders nowadays, Cork and Kilkenny shared each of the eight All-Ireland senior hurling titles between 2002 and 2009.

In 2004, the Rebels ended the Cats’ three-in-a-row ambitions.

It was one of four consecutive All-Ireland final appearances for Cork, from 2003 to 2006, and they met the Cats three times in total.

But they haven’t lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup since 2005, enduring a long drought and suffering a series of losses in Croke Park, including All-Ireland finals in 2013 and 2021.

Their recent National Hurling League history is similarly unkind, last triumphing in 1998.

“It is worrying,” Cork All-Ireland winner Ronan Curran says.

“It’s an awful stretch for Cork to be without an All-Ireland. It’s not as if we haven’t had chances. We had ’13, and ’11 there was a semi-final. There were chances there and we were close. But it just didn’t happen.”

The Leesiders, however, have won three of the last four All-Ireland U20 hurling titles.

There’s potential and raw materials there, as Curran points out ahead of tomorrow night’s traditional heavyweight showdown at Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

“I do think Cork are in a better place at the moment. There are good young fellas coming up, a good management team in place.

“There is a bit of promise there obviously. You’ve had great teams in the meantime. That’s a great Limerick team now, there was the Kilkenny team that came after us and they have snapped up a lot of All-Irelands between them. So it is hard to break that.

Sean Og hAilpin lifting the Liam McCarthy Cup in 2005. Tom Honan / INPHO Tom Honan / INPHO / INPHO

“But I think Cork are coming. Limerick are ahead of the pack and there are a lot of teams challenging, maybe some of them are not in the same bracket.

“They need a bit of luck, but hopefully now in the next few years that will come.”

Perhaps with further tactical change. The contrast from Curran’s era to the current day is striking. A running game proved successful for Cork in the mid-2000s, whereas now Limerick’s possession-based approach is dominant. Could that revolution happen again?

“Ah no, the game will evolve,” the St Finbarr’s clubman says. “And sometimes it nearly goes back to where it was a few years previous and stuff like that.

“But the gameplan we had back then was based on the players we had back then. It was moreso the way they played, the likes of Ben [O'Connor], Jerry [O'Connor], Tom Kenny, Timmy Mc [Carthy]… they all liked running with the ball and so it suited our style back then.

“Whereas fellas like myself and John Gardiner and Diarmuid O’Sullivan, we weren’t running with the ball or anything like that. We were trying to get it out of our hands as quick as possible to give it to the lads to run.

“So I wouldn’t say it was a gameplan as much as the way the fellas liked to play back then. I think it’s very overstated, a small bit, the way we played. Because if you go back to the 2003 All-Ireland final, it was fairly direct, still.

“It’s nearly a distant memory now that things were different with our team; which they were a small bit. But that was based on players.”

In terms of going direct, Setanta Ó hAilpín and Brian Corcoran were among Cork’s target men in 2003 and 2004. “But if I had the ball, the same as maybe John (Gardiner) beside me, or Seán Óg (hAilpín) on the other side, we would have popped it off to Tom (Kenny) or Jerry (O’Connor) and they would go off running.

“It gave us a bit of a breather too, which was just the easier play to give too.

“We wouldn’t have changed that much then from ’03, ‘04, ’05, whatever.

“I suppose Donal O’Grady would have changed things when he came in, advising us to give it easy, give the easiest ball to the man in a better position. And it grew from there.”

Aaron Gillane facing Cork in the 2021 All-Ireland final. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

Curran continues: “Obviously the game today is a more possession-based game and players are adapting to that. But at times, I think it will change again at some stage.

“I always remember in the football, Kerry went back to having two big lads inside in the forward line and that was just after teams were playing a possession game and this was a return to an older style to kick the ball in long.

“You could see it happening again in hurling some of these days. Some team will come up with something different again and that is the beauty of the game.”

Five in-a-row chasing Limerick have their tactics “down to a tee,” Curran adds. “A lot of it is on their half-forwards really. They come short for the short ball and then it’s the big decision to make in the half-back line: Do you follow them and leave space behind, or do you sit back and tackle out the field with the forwards and the midfielders?

“Either way, if you follow them, they will punish you inside in the full-forward line with the likes of [Aaron] Gillane and [Séamus] Flanagan. If you push back, then the likes of Tom Morrissey, Cian Lynch, Gearoid Hegarty will take you to pieces outside.

“They will react to whatever way teams are playing them and they have just a great system there where they work really hard, they have great intensity and are big strong lads and everyone knows what they are doing to a tee.

“The big thing for Limerick over the next few years is just keeping that hunger up. If they have that hunger, they will be very, very hard to beat all the time.”

- Additional reporting from Declan Bogue.