1978 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final
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| Event | 1978 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship | ||||||
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| Date | 3 September 1978 | ||||||
| Venue | Croke Park, Dublin | ||||||
| Referee | Jimmy Rankin (Laois) | ||||||
| Attendance | 64,155 | ||||||
The 1978 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Final was the 91st All-Ireland Final and the culmination of the 1978 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship, an inter-county hurling tournament for the top teams in Ireland. The match was held at Croke Park, Dublin, on 3 September 1978, between Cork and Kilkenny. The Leinster champions lost to their Munster opponents on a score line of 1-15 to 2-8.
In the early days of 1978 Cork's hurling followers wondered if the county senior team would complete the holy grail of capturing three consecutive All-Ireland wins in-a-row. A poor showing in the National Hurling League discouraged the followers; however, the side comfortably won the Munster Championship and qualified for a third consecutive All-Ireland final appearance. Cork had defeated Wexford in the two previous championship deciders, however, to defeat their old rivals Kilkenny to capture the third in-a-row would prove the worth of this team. It was the first championship meeting of these two teams since Kilkenny defeated Cork in the All-Ireland final of 1972.
Sunday 3 September was the date of the All-Ireland final and conditions were almost excellent with sunshine in the early stages of the game. Roy Jenkins, the President of the European Commission, was a special guest at the game and he sat beside Jack Lynch, a former Cork player and one of the all-time greats of the game who was now Taoiseach.
The game began at a lightning pace with Jimmy Barry-Murphy grabbing the sliothar on the wing after the throw-in. His shot went straight over the bar to put Cork on the scoreboard after just twenty-five seconds of play. Immediately after the puck-out the play switched to the Cork goalmouth, however, a Frank Cummins shot went wide. Back at the other end of the field after the puck-out team captain Charlie McCarthy did likewise for Cork when his first shot of the day went wide. Soon after this the ball broke to Ray Cummins down on the wing on the Hogan Stand side and he was completely unmarked. His shot was not a good one and was pulled down by Kilkenny goalkeeper Noel Skehan and was promptly cleared. What could have been another Cork score quickly turned into a Kilkenny attack. As the sliothar was sent into the Cork goalmouth two of the team’s defenders collided as it dropped to Liam ‘Chunky’ O’Brien. O’Brien flicked it onto Kevin Fennelly who had an easy tap into the net to capture Kilkenny’s first score of the afternoon. Almost immediately Brian Cody had the opportunity to his side three points up, however, his shot went wide. Cork’s ultra accurate free-taker, John Horgan, did likewise for his team soon afterwards when his long-range free tailed wide. After another intensive tussle around midfield the ball broke to Ray Cummins once again and he took off on a solo run in the direction of Kilkenny’s goal. As he edged nearer he was pulled down and a penalty was awarded. Tim Crowley stepped up to take the penalty and had every intention of going for a goal. His shot was a good one, however, it was stopped by Noel Skehan who cleared his lines and gave his defenders some respite. The next score of the day came for Cork when 21-year-old Tom Cashman pointed for his team.
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