Kilkenny jubilee hurling team to be honoured in Croke Park this afternoon

Kilkenny’s silver jubilee All-Ireland SHC winning team of 2000 will be celebrated at Croke Park this Sunday afternoon ahead of the All-Ireland final between Cork and Tipperary.

The All-Ireland victory against Offaly 25 years ago was Brian Cody’s first as manager and started a glorious spell of success for the county over the following two decades as the Cats claimed a commanding 5-15 to 1-14 victory in front of a crowd of 61,493 at GAA headquarters.

The win over the Faithful County ended a seven-year wait to win the MacCarthy Cup and also made up for successive final defeats against Offaly (1998) and Cork (1999).

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The starting full-forward line of Henry Shefflin, DJ Carey and Charlie Carter combined for 4-9 of the final tally with Eddie Brennan getting a fifth goal off the bench.

Despite the introduction of managers as well as the teams since last year, the 11-time All-Ireland winning manager Cody is not expected to be in attendance on the day.

Kilkenny were captained to success by Willie O’Connor who accepted the trophy on the Croke Park pitch as a result of the ground being redeveloped at the time

The Kilkenny team that lined up on the day was James McGarry; Michael Kavanagh, Noel Hickey, Willie O’Connor; Phil Larkin, Eamonn Kennedy, Peter Barry; Andy Comerford (0-1), Brian McEvoy; Denis Byrne (0-4), John Power, John Hoyne (0-1); Charlie Carter (1-3), DJ Carey (1-4), Henry Shefflin (2-2). Substitutes: Canice Farrell and Eddie Brennan (1-0).

While Sunday’s jubilee celebration will bring back great memories for Kilkenny supporters, it will also be a bittersweet afternoon with two of the counties biggest rivals doing battle for the marquee prize in the game at 3.30pm.

Cork will go into the final as favourites as they look to end a 20-year wait for All-Ireland success while Tipperary will be hoping to repeat the heroics of their last win at Kilkenny’s expense in the 2019 decider.

It will be the first ever meeting on final day between the traditional rivals and after Darragh McCarthy was red carded in the round-robin clash in Munster within seconds of the throw-in, a much closer tie is anticipated.

While the controversy around the scoreboard in the semi-final loss to Tipperary is still a sore point, the excitement in the two competing counties has hit fever pitch with tickets at a premium for what could be a classic encounter.

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