SFC Semi Final Countdown

With the Semi Final fast approaching Blazing Castles reflects:

Dublin and Cork last met in the NFL in March this year when Cork handed out a lesson to the Blues, running out winners 2-13 to 2-06.  From that game on 15 players between the two teams started in the relevant quarter finals for the counties.  For Dublin Michael Fitzsimons, Philip MacMahon, Ger Brennan, Ross McConnell, Michael Darragh MacAuley, David Henry, Bernard Brogan all started while for Cork it was up Ray Carey, Michael Shields, Noel OLeary, Paudie Kissane, Derek Kavanagh, Paddy Kelly, Daniel Goulding, & Paul Kerrigan.

On that night the Dubs were forced to rethink their whole approach to the game in a fashion not unlike the problems exposed by Meath & Wexford.  let's hope the Blues are now more settled in their system and can cope with Cork's fire power.  Interesting on the night Fintan Goold, although not a scorer on the night, was a constant thorn in the Dubs side yet did not feature in the Quarter Final win over the Rossies.

The Dubs also met Cork in the 2009 U21 Championship semi final when a series of wasteful shots by the Boys in Blue allowed the southerners win through & ultimately take the All Ireland crown.  Rory O'Carroll is the only Dubs starter from that daya while the Rebels started with the services of Aidan Walsh, Ciaran Sheehan and Colm O'Neill.

From a Dublin prespective one of the most famous recent meeting between the two counties occurred in 1983 when the Dubs travelled to Cork for a memorable victory.  Youtube records the Dublin goals on the day.  A three DVD box set which includes the '83 semi final draw & replay is available from DVDSales.ie

Funniest moment had to be Dublin's win over no show Cork who refused to play extra time in '87 League quarter final.

The 1989 semi final never happened :-)

However who can forget the semi final win in 1995 when a young Jason Sherlock led the Cork defence a merry dance and one of Dublin's finest team scores was recorded by Paul Clarke.