JUST as Larry Tompkins was preparing to accept the Sam Maguire Cup from GAA President John Dowling after the 1990 All-Ireland football final, Ger Canning summed up the magnitude of what Cork had just achieved in his TV commentary.

“It’s Sam and it’s Liam,” said Canning “in the one year for Cork.” Although Cork were retaining their football title, and Tompkins was just about to lift the Sam Maguire, that glorious moment was indelibly linked to what the hurlers had achieved two weeks earlier.

It was a seminal moment, not just for Cork, but for the GAA as a whole – because achieving the ‘Double’ in the same year was deemed to be nearly impossible.

Could anyone have predicted at the outset of the 1990 championships that Cork could actually do the ‘Double’? It certainly wouldn’t have been an outlandish claim. Cork were the reigning football champions. The hurlers hadn’t won a Munster title since 1986 but the squad was still teeming with talent and experience.