Of course, Cork have had lean periods too. Between 1955 and 1965, the county didn't win a single All Ireland, and won only the one league.

But since 1966 when the footballers won Munster and the hurlers went one better by claiming Liam McCarthy, Cork fans have been constantly on the go.

Guess how many seasons in the last 42 years Cork have failed to reach the semi-final of either the league or championship in either code? The answer is just one . . . 1991, funnily enough the year after the county's zenith of De Double.

Just to give you an idea how demanding it has been on the pluralistic Cork fan, consider the followingf Over the last 42 years Cork have made 28 All Ireland senior final appearances, winning 14 of them. In other words the county wins a senior All Ireland every three years, and plays in two finals over those three years.

Over those last 42 years, there have been only eight years where neither the footballers nor the hurlers made it to an All Ireland semi-final at least.

In that time the hurlers have made it through 22 times, the footballers 18.

The hurlers have the higher success ratio, making 18 finals and winning 11; that is, every second year they make a semi-final they go on to lift Liam. In contrast, today will be only the footballers' 10th final in that time. Up to now they've won just three, meaning they tend to only lift Sam one in every six times they reach a semi-final.

There have been only six years over the last 42 where Cork have failed to win either a Munster or league or All Ireland title. Mind, if the footballers lose today, you can make that seven).

And in three of those six years Cork still managed to reach a league final (the footballers in '97 and '01, the hurlers in '02).

From 1969 to 1990 . . . that's 22 consecutive seasons . . . Cork landed either a Munster or league title in one code or the other.

Curiously, for all the success Cork have had over this time, they've had only five Munster doubles . . . '66, '83, '90, '99 and 2006. But it's all in the timing. The one year one crowd has a dip, the other picks it up.

After 44 national finals in 42 years, 26 of which they've won. You'd have to feel sorry for them, wouldn't you?

Cork and Kerry: where it will be won and lost For those of you who follow When Sunday Comes regularly, you've seen how we identified trends in the CorkWaterford rivalry that again held firm this year, especially when the pair played those epics in Croke Park.

N29 Well, there are also certain trends . . .to the point of being deemed rules . . .in the oldest rivalry of them all, CorkKerry, and especially in recent years.

Look out for the following today sof.

1. GOALS WILL BE SCARCE Today Kerry come to Croke Park with two of the most prolific goalscorers currently playing intercounty football . . . Colm Cooper and Eoin Brosnan. But that duo will also be coming up against the meanest defence in the game. This past two years Cork have conceded only two goals in 11 championship games . . . one, admittedly, from the Gooch himself in this year's Munster final. In fact, between league and championship this past two years Billy's backs have only let in seven goals in 25 games, keeping 18 clean sheets. You have to go back to the 2005 All Ireland quarter-final . . . 27 games ago . . . to find the last time a team put more than a goal past this Cork defence.

When these two served up a goal bonanza in Croke Park in 2002, you had to go back a further 19 years for the previous time an All Ireland semifinal had produced more goals. Then, six months later, when the pair of them played the first-ever intercounty game under lights to kick off the 2003 league, Cork blitzed their neighbours for four goals while Declan O'Sullivan marked his intercounty debut with a consolation goal.

But since that, Cork-Kerry has gone all goal-shy.

In their seven subsequent championship games, there have been only five goals, while in their four league clashes there have also been only three. That's 770 minutes of football, and only eight goals.

For the record, Cork have actually outgoaled Kerry in that time, 5-3.

However, they have won only two of those games while Kerry have won seven and drawn one. The edge is that over those 11 games, they've scored 35 points more than Cork. In all, they've scored 3-139 to Cork's 5-104. That's 148 points to 119, or, on average 13.4 points to 10.9.

2. WHOEVER'S AHEAD AT HALF-TIME WINS THE GAME Before the previous game in this year's championship, Jack O'Shea made a shrewd observation: against big teams Dublin tend to be ahead at half-time but behind at full-time. And so last month, he got 4/1 on Dublin to be ahead of Kerry at the break but Kerry to be ahead at the death.

If you're reading this, Jacko, you might want to know it's different with this fixture and the complete opposite to the Cork-Waterford rivalry in which to be ahead at the interval is a kiss of death.

In all but one of the 12 Cork-Kerry championship clashes since the turn of the millennium, has the side ahead at half-time lost, that exception being the 2005 Munster final. (See 'Half Measures'). Mind, whoever wins the first half tends to win the second as well. The only time the side who scored the most after half-time actually ended up losing the game was the famous 2000 game when Cork staged a gallant if futile comeback from the two controversial first half penalties.

3. WHOEVER SCORES THE FIRST GOAL WINS Ever since that 2002 All Ireland semifinal, the side who has scored the first goal in a Cork-Kerry game has gone on to win. Go through it. The tone of that 2002 semi-final was set by Mike Frank and Gooch's opening goals, the 2005 Munster final turned on Declan O'Sullivan's effort, Eoin Brosnan's goal sealed that year's All Ireland semi-final, James Masters' goal shaped last year's Munster final while Cork were always playing catch up in Killarney this year after Gooch's goal.

Cork: the lost generation When Cork won the All Ireland in 1990, no one could have envisaged two scenarios. One: that we'd be 17 years waiting for another team to put back-to-back All Irelands together, and two: that Cork wouldn't even have won another All Ireland over those 17 years. Cork have produced some fantastic footballers in that time. Today we salute them, picking a best 15 of Cork footballers who failed to win a senior All Ireland. Mind, three of them could find their holy grail today. (See 'Nearly Men') BETCHA DIDN'T KNOW THIS NOW. . .

For the day that's in it, we thought we'd give you three to work out.

1. Since the conception of the All Star scheme in 1971, guess how many years have Cork missed out on winning an All Star in either code? A.

4 B. 7 C. 10 2. And how many years have Kerry gone without an All Star in that time too? A. 6 B. 9 C. 13 3. Gooch is only one of two players to score a goal against Cork in championship since Eoin Brosnan was on target in the 2005 All Ireland semi-final. Who is that other player?