Curse of Captain No.13?

And there it was. The shrill blast of referee Joe McQuillan’s full time whistle and Dublin were the All Ireland Senior Football champions for the first time since 1995.  The Hill erupted, the Dublin players jumped for joy while Kerry captain Colm Cooper cut a disconsolate figure as the realisation that the cup had been snatched from his and his teammates grasp sets in. 

As captain Bryan Cullen accepted the Sam McGuire cup on the steps of the Hogan Stand, I eased my chair backwards and dropped the headphones down on the desk.  No point in hanging around now.  Here I was, 4 o’clock in the morning, 11,500 miles from home, after watching events transpire in an internet cafe in downtown Auckland! We were here to cheer on the boys in green in the Rugby World Cup.  Now, however, the euphoric bubble of Ireland’s stunning victory over Australia in Eden Park the previous night was well and truly burst.  No need to carry on the celebrations in the Munster Inn in Auckland now.  Home I went.

I get awoken with a text message alert on my phone.  “That No. 13 jersey is cursed.  Sure we were never going to win with Gooch wearing No. 13”. I shook myself out of my slumber and attempted to take all this in.  Was it true that in the long and illustrious history of the All Ireland Senior Football Championship that no winning captain has worn the No. 13 jersey?  The questions start to swirl around in my head.  Was this a Kerry curse? A national one maybe?  And most importantly, could it be broken? 

Fast forward to Saturday July 21^st 2012.  The 3^rd round of the All Senior Football Championship qualifiers and Kerry are down to play Tyrone in a mouth watering clash in Killarney.  Colm Cooper is named in the starting team at full forward, No. 14.  The word on the street is that the most technically gifted footballer of his era, and any other era for that matter, will now be more centrally involved and will be more of a focal point for his teammates around him.   And for the superstitious out there, thank God, he will not be wearing the No. 13.  The path is now clear for Gooch to lead the Kingdom to glory.  Or so we thought until the Donegal juggernaut stopped us abruptly in our tracks.  It is time for me to put my investigating cap on and find some answers.

With information prior to the 1937 final proving inconclusive, I am shocked to find that in the 53 finals played between 1937 and 1989, no right corner forward had captained either the winning or losing teams in any of these games.  Now that’s a one for the statisticians among us.

Step forward Colm O’Rourke!  Part of the feared Meath team of the late 1980’s who won back to back titles in 1987 and 1988 against old foes Cork.  The tables were turned however the following year, and in 1990, Larry Tompkins, one of the Rebels favourite adopted sons, leads his team once more to glory and collects the Sam McGuire cup.  Was this where the curse had begun?  A curse would seem a tad strong an observation considering based on the above records O’Rourke was the first man to captain a team appearing in an All Ireland final from his right corner forward position and had the misfortune of not leading his team to glory on that occasion.

Eight more years slip by and one must wonder then if history weighed heavily on the shoulders of Philip Clifford as he and his team ran out on to the Croke Park pitch for the All Ireland football final of 1999, once more against Meath.  Being apprehensive about preparing a winning speech would have been understandable for the Bantry man if he was to know that faith was to deal him the same hand as O’Rourke back in 1990.

Great forwards such as Peter Canavan, Dara O’Cinneide, Brian Dooher and Declan O’Sullivan experienced the euphoria of being a winning captain during the “Noughties” but none of them from the right corner position.  And then we come to Cooper once more and the disappointment of the 2011 final.  No winning captains wearing No. 13 in all this time and 3 losing captains left pondering what might have been.

A further trawl through the records confirm the following:

-          Centre Forward has been the most successful position on the field from which to captain an All Ireland winning team with 15 winning captains including such greats of the game as Dublin’s Tony Hanahoe, Kerry’s Ogie Moran, Offaly’s Richie Connor, Cork’s Larry Tompkins and the aforementioned Declan O’Sullivan of Kerry

-          Conversely, Centre Half Back has been the most unsuccessful position with 10 losing  captains  with the dubious distinction including Cavan’s John Joe O’Reilly, Dublin’s Tommy Drumm, Cork’s Conor Counihan and Kildare’s Glen Ryan   

Does it therefore make total sense to allow a simple number to inspire fear and extra caution and have inter county managers around the country scurrying to ensure that their trusted leader on the pitch is operating from the half forward or half back line and anywhere but the right corner forward position.  “Triskaidekaphobia” – the fear of the Number 13!  One for GAA fans all over the country to mull over during the winter ahead.  And as to whether the damned curse can be broken?  Answers on a postcard please!