Munster football final odds and ends
June 27, 2011This 16 year gap pales in significance to the 74 year period 1891 and 1965 when Cork achieved 1 Munster Senior Football Championship victory on Kerry soil. The 1945 Munster Final success in Killarney was Cork's only Senior Football Championship victory in 16 attempts of making the trip to the Kingdom during that period.
4 of the last 6 meetings between Cork and Kerry in Fitzgerald Stadium Killarney have ended in draws.
Cork's record against Kerry when they have won the All-Ireland in the previous season is won 3 and lost 3. Their 3 successes came in 1891, 1974 and 1990. They were dethroned by Kerry in 1912, 1946 and 1991.
Kerry have never beaten Cork in the Munster Senior Football Championship at a neutral venue (it happened 3 times!)
"Points win games"!! - Or so you would think looking at the recent record of Cork and Kerry. Neither County has recorded more than 1 goal in Munster Senior Football Championship meetings since the 2000 Munster Semi-Final which Kerry won by 2-15 to 1-13. During the 13 subsequent Munster Championship matches between the counties, they have combined to score a total of 12 goals between them or 1 goal for every 77 minutes of Championship action.
The highest score by an individual team in a Cork vs. Kerry Munster Senior Football Championship match was the 1976 Munster Final replay at Pairc Ui Chaoimh which Kerry won by 3-20 to 2-19.
The highest margin of victory between the teams was in the first round match in 1937 played at Killarney with Kerry winning by 6-7 to 0-4 - a margin of 21 points.
In the 1890 Munster Senior Football Final, Laune Rangers (kerry) and Midleton (Cork) were the finalists. The game was 57 minutes old, with the sides scoreless, when the ball burst and as there was no replacement ball the game could not continue and was abandoned.
In the 1893 Final, Laune Rangers (Kerry) and Dromtarriffe (Cork) were fixed on two occasions to play this final in Millstreet but the Kerry side did not travel. The game was fixed for a third time in Mallow but there was still no show from the Kerry side and Cork received a walkover.
Allianz Football League Division 1 champions Cork proved that points win games, not goals. The Rebels scored just 6 goals in 8 matches in the League (compared to 18 goals for League runners-up Dublin). However, a contribution of 131 points (average of 16+ per game) proved sufficient to retain their League title.
Kerry conceded just 5 goals in Allianz Football League Division 1 action (Dublin 3, Armagh and Down 1 each).
There has been a 62% increase in the number of scores in each of the last 4 Munster Senior Football Championships - 2008 (21 scores per game), 2009 (24 scores per game), 2010 (28 scores per game), 2011 (34 per game to date)
Clare, Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford have played a combined 20 competitive away matches in 2011 and won 3.
Kerry's only competitive defeats of 2011 to date have come against Allianz Football League Division 1 finalists Cork and Dublin - losing by 1 point on both occasions.
Clare joined Dublin as the only counties in the Allianz Football League to score 10 goals more than they conceded during the League rounds. Clare scored 13 goals (5 each against London and Kilkenny) and conceded 3.
Since 2000, Limerick have won 2 home games in the Munster Senior Football Championship - against Waterford in 2004 (1-18 to 0-7) and against Clare in 2006 (2-5 to 0-8).
Cork's Daniel Goulding was the 3rd top scorer in the 2010 Provincial and All-Ireland Senior Football Championships, scoring 1-43 to lie behind John Doyle (Kildare) and Bernard Brogan (Dublin) in the top scorer charts.
On this date in history - the last time the Munster Senior Football Final was played on July 3rd was in 1978 when Cork defeated Kerry by 1-14 to 0-16 at Pairc Ui Chaoimh.
Courtesy of Munster Council PRO Ed Donnelly Tweet
