On this day in sport, The 2003 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final was played.
In front of a sell-out Croke Park, old rivals Kilkenny and Cork went head to head in the 116th All-Ireland Hurling Final. It was their first meeting in the final since 1999. Kilkenny went into the 2003 championship as defending champions, having won their twenty-seventh All-Ireland title the previous year.
The minor team has just won the All-Ireland title in a thrilling 2-16 to 2-15 over Galway in the opener, so the question now was could the seniors repeat that?
In these days of very high-scoring finals, it’s easy to forget that it wasn’t always so. Which makes the contribution of one man, in particular, all the more impressive.
Related: Charlie Carter reflects on stepping away from Kilkenny
That man was Martin Comerford.
The O’Loughlin Gaels stalwart scored 1-4 from play, more than all the other Kilkenny forwards combined with his 65th-minute goal proving to be crucial in the victory, nullifying Sean Ó hAilpín’s earlier goal in the encounter, where the Rebel County had staged a great rally after trailing by six points at the half-time interval.
Kilkenny won on a score line of 1–14 to 1–11 to secure their 28th title and in the process, and thus securing Brian Cody’s third All-Ireland triumph as manager.
KCLR was not even born then, so we were not there, but were you?
