The draw for the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals could hardly have thrown up more intrigue, with hard-nosed rivalries set to be resumed.
Recent history would suggest that the one team All-Ireland champions Kerry would have wanted to avoid was Tyrone.
Their rivalry was the cornerstone of the football championship for the first decade of the millennium, and while the Kingdom claimed the big prize on five occasions compared to Tyrone's three, the fact they couldn’t turn Mickey Harte’s side over in that time was a stick they were often beaten with. The 2021 unexpected semi-final defeat to the Red Hands merely enhanced Tyrone’s reputation as a bogey team.
The next biggest rivalry to follow was Mayo v Dublin, with Sunday’s blockbuster a throwback to classic games where the men from the capital more often than not prevailed, regularly by the skin of their teeth.
Even the all-Ulster clash of Armagh and Monaghan brings to Dublin a more local rivalry, yet the odd one out is the meeting of Cork and Derry, a certain novelty factor given this is only the second time they have crossed paths in championship football.
The 1993 All-Ireland final, Derry’s first and only time to claim Sam Maguire, is not surprisingly held in high regard by those within the county. The Men Who Won Maguire can be viewed on YouTube while The Boys of '93: Derry's All-Ireland Kings is a compelling posthumous memoir of legendary manager Eamon Coleman, with special attention paid to the high watermark in Derry football.
The final isn't as fondly remembered on Leeside, but 30 years on, players from both sides take a trip down memory lane and predict what we can expect at GAA Headquarters later today.
Derry full-back Tony Scullion remembers the giddy excitement within the county after they edged out Dublin by a point to reach just their second ever All-Ireland final.
The sentiment from the supporters was that the hard part was done. The players however were not thinking along the same lines, especially as Cork had stuck five goals past Mayo in a 30-point demolition in the other semi-final.
There were a number of players that were part of Cork’s 89 and 90 winning campaigns, while younger players such as Brian Corcoran, Joe Kavanagh and Colin Corkery were making their mark.
"We knew we had a very good Cork team to beat in the final," Scullion says.
While there was a novelty to the fixture, Cork’s Tony Davis was well accustomed to facing Derry opposition. He played against St Pat’s Magherafelt in a colleges semi-final and the year previous, was part of an O’Donovan Rossa side that defeated Lavey at the semi-final stage as the Skibbereen club claimed All-Ireland glory.
He would be a key figure at wing-back, in a Cork defence where Derry danger lurked everywhere.
Enda Gormley picked off 0-07 against Dublin, but nerves were always close to the surface around match day.
"I would have been a nervous enough creature at the best of times, but I had the flu in the days leading into the final," he told RTÉ Sport.
Whether it was anxiety, or simply feeling below-par, the first 15 minutes were a struggle. At one stage, he needed three attempts to pick up the ball, but in truth, all of his team-mates were on the backfoot.
The Rebels powered into a 1-02 to 0-00 lead with Joe Kavanagh the first player to raise a green flag against Derry since the previous summer and seven games of championship football.
The centre-forward surged through the middle, but what the Nemo man remembers most is the fans spilling onto the pitch.
"It upset things for a minute or two, probably upset our rhythm," he says.
In the last All-Ireland final before the complete renovation of Croke Park, a crowd control gate at the Canal End had to be opened during the match to allow 120 people, mainly women and children, onto the sideline.
"It was chaos," recalls Davis. "You’d go over to take a sideline and there were legs everywhere."
In the last minute of the half, Davis was the central figure in a moment that had a significant impact on the game. The defender was called for a mistimed shoulder into Dermot Heaney. There were few arguments over the foul, though it appeared well short of a yellow card.
When referee Tommy Howard brandished a red card, there were bewildered expressions on both sides.
"If you look at the physicality of the games at the time, it was nothing at all," says Davis. But look, that’s the way it goes. I’m not going to give out or judge. That’s life."
The general consensus was that the referee was balancing the books for moments earlier only issuing Niall Cahalane a booking for a punch on Gormley.
"I remember going over to the ref after he booked Niall and I was a wee bit vociferous. I saw his expression change. I think he realised he made a mistake."
Scullion was a distance away, but still felt it was an injustice on the Skibb man.
"It’s unfair that Tony Davis had to walk. I think Tony paid the penalty for Niall."
Asked for his thoughts on the Cahalane incident after the match, manager Eamon Coleman suggested the altercation had a galvanising effect on the team, with Gormley claiming the last two points in the half as Derry trailed by three.
"That punch seemed to waken up Gormley and I think it also fired up the entire Derry team," he told the Irish Independent.
Aged 31, Scullion was the oldest player on the Derry team and upon the resumption was tasked with keeping tabs on Corkery, who would end the year with his first and what proved to be his only All-Star.
He knocked over two points and John O’Driscoll’s 47th minute goal put Cork in the driving seat, yet that was the last score they would muster as the Ulster champions reeled off four points without reply, Gormley rounding off the scoring in a 1-14 to 2-08 win.
"It was a brilliant thing to win Sam Maguire for the first time for the county," Scullion recalls of the full-time jubilation.
For Davis, with two All-Ireland medals in the pocket from 1989 and 1990, there was little self-pity.
"My sympathy was with the lads I was playing with. Don, my brother, never got an All-Ireland before he finished."
The weather didn’t help matters that September Sunday, but there is no watching back through rose-tinted glasses.
"It was probably a poor game compared to the standards of today," admits Kavanagh.
Gormley came across the game during lockdown and any romantic notions regarding the match were blown away.
"There is no doubt the younger Derry generation would have heard about the glory days, and after watching some of the games and they are probably asking questions about where the great football was being played."
The current crop of Derry players go in search of emulating their 93 heroes, and most observers feel Cork are a hurdle they should overcome as they look to flex their title credentials.
The back-to-back Ulster champions were far from inspiring in the round-robin stages, and like the other contenders, there is a sense that they are playing the long game.
After running Kerry close in Munster, John Cleary’s side have seen off Division 1 opposition in the form of Mayo and Roscommon. They swam in the same Division 2 waters as the Oak Leaf County, with their March league encounter ending in a draw after Ian Maguire’s 78th minute goal salvaged a point.
Perhaps not much can be gleaned from that meeting at Páirc Uí Chaoimh - Derry made seven changes to the team having secured top spot a week previous against Clare - but a dozen of the Cork team that started that day began against Roscommon last time, outscoring the visitors 1-06 to 0-01 coming down the stretch.
John Cleary has settled on a core group of players, with the likes of Steven Sherlock, underage star Conor Corbett and the sparky Chris Óg Jones adding further options in attack.
"We could have got Armagh or Mayo in the draw, so being honest, you’d have to say we would be happy with the draw," says Scullion, who still expects a Cork team on an upward curve to cause problems.
"The Cork runners from deep are very strong," adds Gormley. "They are extremely fit and get a lot of scores from deep.
"Derry also get scores from defence, but Cork’s counter-attack would worry you if they turn over ball. I’m not sure anyone breaks at the same pace as them. It’s something Derry might not have faced yet."
After seeing Cork football flounder from one disaster to another, Davis is glad to see the players getting more respect and a feel-good vibe flowing around the county.
Victory over Derry is possible he says, but curbing the influence of the trio of Chrissy McKaigue, Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan, three players he feels would walk on the Kerry or Dublin team, is crucial.
The schedule he feels could go either way as they face into their third successive weekend of action.
"Cork have a really good chance, but the cumulative effect of games the last few weeks, it’s hard to know if it will be an energiser or whether they will be wrecked.
"Luke Fahy limped off the last day, Ruairi Deane went off injured, Brian Hurley is injured. You don’t know what effect that will have on them.
"If you go behind – and Cork have fallen behind in all the games – you don’t know if fatigue will play a part."
Kavanagh too is encouraged by what he has seen in 2023 from Cork, but getting to the last eight in the race for Sam might be the end of the road for a team still learning their trade.
"I expected us to come out of the group ahead of Louth, but it all came down to where we were for this game. Would we have beaten Roscommon up there? Possibly not.
"Cork might have a bit more freedom now and could thrive, like we saw against Kerry, and second half against Roscommon, but Derry are a couple years down the road and All-Ireland contenders, whereas Cork are finding their feet.
"Hopefully Cork can keep it tight. The team will believe they can win Sunday and go on further, but standing back looking back at it realistically, they are in bonus territory and maybe even out of their depth."
Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship quarter-finals on Sunday, Derry v Cork and Dublin v Mayo, on Sunday from 1.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on RTÉ.ie/Sport and the RTÉ News app or listen to live updates on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
