GAA Features

In the end Cork would walk away with Liam MacCarthy, but Waterford’s 2004 Munster final win was one of the best games of hurling of the modern era.

Two teams, at or near their peak, meeting in the Munster hurling final, is usually a recipe for a cracker. Waterford v Cork in 2004 had all those ingredients but it went way beyond expectations to produce a game for the ages.

The year before, despite a stunning John Mullane hat-trick, Cork had won the Munster Cup in a mini-classic so the rematch was eagerly anticipated. We wouldn’t be disappointed. An early Cork flurry, another Dan Shanahan goal in his sensational summer, some spectacular points by both sides and the dismissal of the hero Mullane had already ratcheted this game up a level from the year before.

Then Paul Flynn scored that goal and the game became one of the all-time greats. Even after Flynn's epic strike, there was still lots of hurling to be done and Seamus Prendergast’s killer point is still spine tingling.

There are six minutes of hurling goodness in the above clip. If the clash of both these sides on Sunday is half as good, we will be very lucky indeed.