First test passes sweetly

Always a nervy time, particularly for All-Ireland champions. The first championship match of the season passed sweetly into the past tense for Kerry.

Nearly four months after they had left the dressing-rooms in Parnell Park, Dublin, tight-lipped and ashen-faced from a NFL hammering which condemned them to Division Three, the champions yesterday relaxed in the knowledge that those long weeks of preparation had paid off. Ancient rivals Cork had disappeared in their slipstream.

For Michael Francis Russell, the Killorglin wunderkind who had been sparingly used last year, graduation to a starting place on yesterday's team was fully justified with four important points from play.

"It was a very tough game, very warm out there," he said. "When they got the goal, I'd say people thought we were dead and buried.

"Our midfield showed a bit of composure. They held their head and got good ball into the forwards again and luckily we got a goal back at the other end."

Kerry manager Paidi O Se was generous in victory.

"You couldn't get a much tougher test than that. We were on a hiding to nothing as All-Ireland champions. Cork had nothing to lose and a lot to gain. We were very prepared mentally for it. It's a big occasion."

Had the long gap since their last competitive outing worried O Se and his selectors? "We got some uninterrupted training going and some challenge matches. Some worked out for us, some didn't, some worked out very well," said O Se.

Of the adjustments made to last year's team the most successful was the introduction of Johnny Crowley at full forward where he managed five second-half points.

"A lot of the players today worked very hard," said O Se. "All of them really tried. We were very much on top, Dara was lording it at midfield and we were getting ball in but for some reason or another with the exception of Mike Frank, we weren't putting moves together. That was a worry.

"One thing more than anything that I enjoyed was that we responded very well to their goal."

In the losing dressing-room, O Se's counterpart Larry Tompkins was coming to terms with the fact he still has to produce a championship victory. And, more acutely, with the unsuccessful outcome to his much-publicised comeback as a player.

He did his best to be upbeat.

"It was a good battle in the forwards," he said. "We were out of it at midfield and under pressure. I thought we showed great character. That's the way it goes. They were dominant around midfield and getting a lot of good supply into their forwards. We were living off scraps, doing very well from what we got.

"They were rattled but got a goal from a high ball that came in. The game turned from there. I was delighted with the display. No-one gave us a chance coming down here, they're the All-Ireland champions. They're still going to be the team to beat, they're going to be stiff opposition for the Leinster champions."

How did he find it on the field?

"Ok, not too bad."

Conor Counihan, the selector who took over Tompkins's management role after the coach opted to join the playing panel, gave a more expansive but sober verdict on the comeback.

"If people expected him to be the star he was 10 years ago, that was never realistic. We had a particular job for him to do on the day and at times he did it quite well. At other times he was left a bit vulnerable by long ball being played aimlessly in."

Captain Ciaran O'Sullivan was deflated by the experience but stoic in the face of defeat.

"Very disappointed. We were down, we got the goal, they came back. They were on a high by that stage and I still believe we were good enough to do it. There was only one kick of the ball in it but that's it, that's football.

"Anything between ourselves and Kerry is always close, it's always tight and they proved it again today."