The history of Dublin and Kilkenny fixtures is written largely in black and amber but occasionally a plot twist has come out of the blue.
Johnny McCaffrey is the only man to have captained Dublin to a championship win over Kilkenny in the last 82 years, the Lucan Sarsfields clubman having led the Dubs to a famous Leinster semi-final replay victory over the Cats in 2013.
Dublin had been waiting since 1942 for that championship triumph over Kilkenny, but the 2013 result was not to be the start of a more evenly balanced power struggle between the counties.
Rather, just over a decade on, when the sides meet Kilkenny continue to hold the power and Dublin continue to suffer.
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Kilkenny have won all eight championship clashes between the teams since 2013.
With each passing year that 1-16 to 0-16 result becomes more of an outlier, but the current group of Dublin players will see Saturday’s Leinster round-robin game as an opportunity to put another pin in the map for hurling in the capital.
A victory over Kilkenny in Parnell Park would leave Dublin sitting top of the table in Leinster with just one round of games remaining and thus within touching distance of a provincial final.
“I think it will be a game where lads will want to stand up and be counted,” says McCaffrey.
“They’ll want to try get a win because they haven’t had a big victory over Kilkenny in any shape or form, not just championship, but in the league too, in recent times.”
Kilkenny have won the last six league meetings between the sides.
However, Dublin’s record against Kilkenny entering that 2013 Leinster SHC meeting hadn’t indicated a surprise was coming either.
Kilkenny hammered Dublin 2-21 to 0-9 in a Leinster semi-final at O’Moore Park in June 2012.
So, when they met again at the same venue 12 months later, the Cats were expected to pick up where they had left off. Instead, the game finished level with Kilkenny needing a TJ Reid point in the dying seconds to avoid defeat.
The replay took place in Portlaoise the following Saturday, which was Dublin’s fourth game in as many weeks as it had taken them two games to get over Wexford in the quarter-finals.
“I remember before we played Kilkenny in 2012, there was a big lead up [three weeks] to the game, the talk of history was massive at the time,” recalls McCaffrey.
“But then we went out and we were a big flop on the day, we were very poor in Portlaoise and got well beaten. We sort of learned from that I suppose, so the following year we just concentrated on the actual game itself.
“But it was also a case that we didn’t really have time to think about the history because the games were coming every week, so you were just trying to recover from one and get ready for the next.
“That possibly helped us, and the lads will probably be similar this week, because they are coming off a game last weekend so would only have turned their focus to Kilkenny on Monday.”
Following that 2013 victory over Kilkenny, Dublin progressed to the Leinster decider where they beat Galway to lift the Bob O’Keeffe Cup for the first time in 52 years.
“It was a massive thing to beat Kilkenny, it would have been something you would have talked about in the years beforehand – that if you beat them you could beat anybody.
“In the dressingroom afterwards it was just pure relief, but we knew that if we didn’t then win the final the victory over Kilkenny would have been all for nothing.
“But beating them definitely gave us extra belief. When I started off, winning a Leinster title would have been a bit of a pipe dream, so to actually go and do it was phenomenal.
“I remember the buzz around Dublin after the Leinster final and it carried over for the weeks before the All-Ireland semi-final against Cork.”
Dublin enter Saturday’s Parnell Park affair on the back of a draw with Wexford and wins over both Carlow and Antrim. Derek Lyng’s Kilkenny beat Antrim but drew with both Galway and Carlow.
“Dublin are probably where they expected to be after three games,” continues McCaffrey.
“They would have been hoping to sneak a win over Wexford the first day but the way they got a draw was fantastic.
“And then to go beat Carlow and Antrim was what they would have hoped for, but the manner of the win over Antrim was impressive because they were coming in after beating Wexford.
“The big test for Dublin though is this weekend, there is the carrot of putting yourself in a strong position at the top of the table, so it’s a great opportunity.”
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