MEMORIES of a red-letter day for the Rebels come flooding back for Bill Cooper when Limerick’s last Championship defeat at Páirc Uí Chaoimh is revisited.
The colour. The noise. The Leeside venue bursting at the seams as Cork bid a temporary farewell by ending an eight-year wait for a Munster SHC title.
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Cooper had three provincial medals on his CV by the time he retired from inter-county hurling at the end of the 2021 season.
But the day he bagged his first is hard to top.
Reflecting on the 2014 showpiece, he told SunSport: “It was a very special occasion.
“Not only was it a Munster final — which is a massive thing in its own right — but it was also the last Cork game in the old Páirc.
“I remember there being just a fantastic build-up to it and the Cork supporters really got behind it.
“It was one of those games where you were telling yourself, ‘We just can’t lose this one’. The whole buzz around it was amazing and the scramble for tickets was fairly hectic as well. The interest was huge.”
A colossal contribution from Cork’s half-forward line was the foundation on which their 2-24 to 0-24 win was built.
And Cooper, who landed a couple of points, was the central pillar.
With Conor Lehane and man-of-the-match Séamus Harnedy alongside him, the trio racked up 1-9 from play.
After injury delayed his Munster Championship bow by a couple of years, it was a glorious climax to Cooper’s first provincial campaign.
Having debuted for Cork during the 2011 All-Ireland qualifiers, the Youghal man had to wait until the 2014 Munster quarter-final against Waterford for his next taste of Championship action.
He said: “It was very satisfying personally to be back in the squad and winning the Munster Championship. I know we won two in Thurles afterwards but to do it at home made that one very special.”
Although their failure to defend their title was a bitter blow to Limerick, the result is now a footnote in the careers of a Treaty trio who featured in that loss to Cork.
Nickie Quaid, Graeme Mulcahy and skipper Declan Hannon are now in the midst of a season that could see them make history as part of the first team to win five All-Ireland hurling titles on the spin.
Cooper remarked: “That’s the beauty of sport, isn’t it? You can never really predict how things will pan out. What they’ve achieved since then has been phenomenal, so fair play to them.”
Since the venue reopened in 2017 following a major upgrade, Limerick have not been beaten in their four Championship outings there.
MUST WIN
But with their season on the line, Cork must repeat the dose that was served a decade ago when the Shannonsiders head south on Saturday evening.
While Lehane and Harnedy continue to carry the hopes of the county, Cooper, 36, will attend as a spectator as his former team-mates bid to bounce back from narrow defeats to Waterford and Clare by upsetting the visitors.
He said: “Knowing how much work they’re putting in, it can be tough to see them coming out on the wrong side of close games.
“It’s coming down to moments in games rather than the entire games. It would be brilliant to see the lads get a result because they’re putting in serious effort to achieve it.
“Do we have the players to do it? I think we do. But it obviously comes down to getting the performance right on the day.”
