DERBY DAYS Cork v Kerry Sunday, Croke Park, 2pmCork have claimed their fair share of Munster titles over recent years but Kerry's supremacy at Croke Park has tilted the balance of an age-old rivalry, writes Damian Cullen

HARD AS it may be to believe, there were many fascinating stories behind the clashes of Kerry and Cork before they decided to pack up their show and bring it to a national stage.

Ever since the football burst just before the end of their first Munster senior football final meeting 118 years ago - and the game had to be abandoned because another ball couldn't be located - meetings between the two rivals have rarely been without incident.

After Kerry embarrassed Cork in last year's All-Ireland final, Paul Galvin - who has had to watch both encounters with the Kingdom's number one rivals from the sidelines this summer - commented that the "fear of losing to Cork was the key. I felt myself that everything Kerry football stood for was on the line today. Everything we have achieved in the last four or five years and the last 100 years was on the line."

It wasn't the first time this feeling provided fuel for Kerry's engine room.

In 1968, a confident Cork team arrived in Killarney seeking a provincial three-in-a-row. To win three would be bad enough for the home county to bear, but to claim the hat-trick in Killarney - where Cork hadn't won a final in for 12 years - was considered too much.

Ray Cummins and Donal Hunt hit goals for Cork in the first minutes of the final, but a Mick O'Connell and Mick O'Dwyer- (both had been coxed back from retirement) inspired Kerry fought back to win 1-21 to 3-8 (it was the same day as Wexford defeated All-Ireland champions Kilkenny by a single point in an equally famous game at Croke Park).

For Kerry supporters, order had been restored - even if Down would later edge them in the All-Ireland decider.

And even during the late 1970s and early 1980s, when a great Kerry team - who won eight Munster titles in a row - were regularly and famously duelling with Dublin at headquarters, some of the greatest football games were closer to home.

In fact, the 1976 All-Ireland final clash with Dublin should never have happened. Cork should have been the Munster champions. On Sunday, July 11th, 1976, the Sam Maguire holders visited Páirc Uí Chaoimh for the annual southern showdown.

A record crowd turned up, 40,000 paying in and another 10,000 somehow avoiding the turnstiles - leading to an iron pitch-side gate being opened and fans lining the pitch (at one stage a young boy had to be dragged from the field when he ran out and kicked a Kerry player).

The report on the front page of The Irish Times the following day reported: After generations of rivalry, the spleen between the men from the Kingdom and the Leesiders erupted into naked venom as the Cork crowd loudly booed every Kerry free, completely unnerving normally accurate kickers like Brendan Lynch . . . it was so bad that Gerald McKenna, chairman of the Kerry County Board said afterwards that Kerry would demand better crowd control next time out and added: 'We will not be intimidated.'

An unfortunate side-effect of big derby games is that the intensity and fear of losing sometimes makes for poor quality. The game finished 0-10 - 0-10, but with no less than 63 fouls.

That didn't affect the interest, though, and two weeks later - while the Montreal Olympics were in full swing - over 45,000 squeezed (quite literally) into the same venue for the rematch - the gates having to be locked 20 minutes before throw-in.

The umpires at each end would take centre stage at the match.

In the 65th minute, with Cork leading 2-16 to 2-12. Mike Sheedy opted against a point and chipped to Seán Walsh, who went for goal from 14 yards out. The ball hit Cork defender Brian Walsh so hard he staggered on the line, and the umpire raised the green flag.

Cork went straight down the field and full forward Declan Barron rose to punch a high ball to the net. The umpires consulted and decided Barron was inside the square before the ball. Pat Spillane then kicked a point to send the game to extra-time.

Cork stayed on the field, but Kerry retired to the dressingroom and emerged a rejuvenated team.

At the end of 170 minutes of football, Kerry had retained their title. Cork must have left the field that day with a somewhat similar feeling to that which must have enveloped the Kerry players last Sunday - not quite knowing what just happened, or how it did.

But perhaps we should not have been at all surprised by the late, late show by Cork at the weekend.

After all, there is precedent, most famously perhaps in the match that ended that long eight-win sequence in Munster by Kerry between 1975 and 1982.

In the 1983 decider, with memories still bitterly sharp of a famous late goal the previous September robbing Kerry of five All-Ireland titles in-a-row, Kerry were caught napping once again.

Kerry led 3-9 to 2-10 at Páirc Uí Chaoimh when, with the game already in its first (and only) minute of injury-time, Cork's Tadhg O'Reilly sent a long ball to Tadhg Murphy, who, with the help of the post, fired past Charlie Nelligan. Cork won by one.

Kerry had been so confident of victory they had travelled without the trophy, so Christy Ryan was presented with the Munster under-21 hurling trophy instead.

In the last 20 years in the province, Kerry claimed 10 titles to Cork's nine (with Clare briefly interrupting the big two). And the last four Munster titles have gone Kerry-Cork-Kerry-Cork.

But the Kingdom's reign over Cork at Croke Park has been ruthless. Bursting the football is no longer an option, but at least Cork can cling to the knowledge the history of duels over the years between the Munster giants is littered with famous wins for the underdog at a time when their rivals looked a better team on paper and were considered unbeatable.

It's what happens on grass that counts.