All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship 1973

Infobox Hurling All-Ireland
year=1973


team=Limerick
titles=7th
captain=Éamonn Grimes
manager=Jackie Power
munster=Limerick
leinster=Kilkenny
ulster=
connacht=
poty=Éamonn Grimes
matches=
The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 1973 was the 87th edition of Ireland’s premier hurling knockout competition. The championship ran from May to September of that year, culminating with the All-Ireland final, held at Croke Park, Dublin on 2 September. The match was contested by Limerick and Kilkenny, with Limerick taking the title by 1-21 to 1-14. It was Limerick’s first championship title since 1940.

Format

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship was run on a provincial basis as usual. All games were played on a knockout basis whereby once a team lost they were eliminated from the championship. The format for the All-Ireland series of games ran as follows:
* The winners of the Leinster Championship advanced directly to the All-Ireland final.
* The winners of the Munster Championship advanced directly to a lone All-Ireland semi-final.
* Galway, a team who faced no competition in the Connacht Championship, entered the championship at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage where they played London. The winners of this game advanced to the All-Ireland semi-final where they played the Munster champions.
* There were no representatives from the Ulster Championship in the All-Ireland series.

All-Ireland final

Overview

Sunday 2 September was the date of the 1973 All-Ireland senior hurling final between Kilkenny and Limerick. It was their first meeting in the championship since the 1940 championship decider when Limerick were the winners. Kilkenny were playing in their third All-Ireland final in-a-row, having lost to Tipperary in 1971 and having defeated Cork in 1973.

Match report

At 3:15pm the referee threw in the sliothar and the game got underway in earnest. Limerick would undoubtedly have started the game as rank outsiders against a Kilkenny team ranked as one of the greatest of all-time; however, ‘the Cats’ suffered an amazing streak of bad luck. Between the Leinster and All-Ireland finals Kilkenny lost many of their key players for one reason or another. Éamonn Morrissey emigrated to Australia, Jim Treacy was ruled out due to injury, Kieran Purcell couldn’t play because of appendicitis and star forward Eddie Keher couldn’t play because of a broken collar bone. Limerick saw their chance and pulled a masterstroke when the moved Éamonn Cregan from the forwards back to centre-back where he marked Kilkenny’s main score-getter Pat Delaney. On a wet day at Croke Park Limerick had the upper hand and led by 0-12 to 1-7 at half-time. Cregan had done a good job marking Delaney; however, he still sneaked in for the only goal of the opening forty minutes. Kilkenny drew level six minutes after the restart with points from Claus Dunne and Liam ‘Chunky’ O’Brien, however, the game then turned on two important incidents. Limerick goalkeeper Séamus Horgan made a spectacular save from a Mick Crotty shot before clearing his lines. Up at the other end of the field a poor puck-out by Kilkenny ‘keeper Noel Skehan gave Mossie Dowling the chance to scramble in a goal. After this the momentum was with Limerick as Richie Bennis spear-headed a rampant attack as Limerick were declared the champions with a 1-21 to 1-14 score line.

tatistics

footballbox
date=1973-09-02
15:15 BST
team1=Limerick
score= 1-21 – 1-14
team2=Kilkenny
report=
goals1=
goals2=
stadium=Croke Park, Dublin
attendance=58,009
referee= M. Slattery (Clare)

{| width=100% style="font-size: 90%"MATCH RULES
*80 minutes.
*Replay if scores level.
*Three named substitutes

References

* Corry, Eoghan, "The GAA Book of Lists" (Hodder Headline Ireland, 2005).
* Donegan, Des, "The Complete Handbook of Gaelic Games" (DBA Publications Limited, 2005).
* Sweeney, Éamonn, "Munster HUrling Legends" (The O'Brien Press, 2002).

ee also