Kerrigan a central figure in Rebels' game plan

The Nemo Rangers’ star’s versatility has made him hard to categorise: speed-merchant, goalscorer, playmaker, free-taker: he is all of those things and more

IT HAS become one of the more arresting sights on the Cork football team in recent years: Paul Kerrigan travelling in supernova mode on a downfield solo run with a bug-eyed defender giving furious chase.

On a team notable for big and rangy athletes, the Nemo man seems to offer a counterpoint: he has always been about guile and speed of foot and of mind as much as strength and size.

“Well, we had a run-off once and James Masters beat him,” laughs Eddie Kirwan, the Nemo Rangers manager when asked if Kerrigan is the fastest player in his club.

“But yeah, I think over 20 yards nobody has the acceleration that Paul has.”

Kerrigan’s blistering pace and his supreme comfort on the ball have given the Cork attack another dimension but there have been signs over this year’s league that there are greater depths to his game. Cork show up for tomorrow’s league final without having had to show much of their hand. Like most teams during an unpredictable spring, their play has varied between dismal, ordinary and promising.

But as they demonstrated in winning the last two leagues, they are excellent at producing results on days when nothing seems to be going right, most notably when the filched a win against tomorrow’s opponents Mayo in Castlebar.

And Kerrigan’s second-half introduction was instrumental in the stark reversal of their fortunes. He managed to infuse a sense of urgency and purpose missing in the Cork attack during the first half and he celebrated the two points he scored with a showiness he rarely displays on big summer days. But the exhibitionism had a point: he was illustrating that the game mattered and was still alive and was there for the taking.

And in the last 10 minutes, the Mayo men seemed paralysed as Cork, playing with 14 men and down by five points in the last 20 minutes of the game, launched attack after attack to win by 0-14 to 0-13. Afterwards, Kerrigan spoke of the importance of having something to play for in the league and of going for a third title in a row.

It felt as if Cork shook off the torpor that had afflicted them in the earlier rounds of the league, as when they hit the wall against Donegal and became caught up in a scrappy struggle against Armagh in the Athletic Grounds.

That match saw Kerrigan receive a two-match ban after he was red-carded for a foolish altercation with Finian Moriarty in front of the linesman. The altercation was nothing serious and is not Kerrigan’s style; he is too much of a natural ball-player to be bothered with arguing the toss with defenders. Maybe he felt he had something to atone for in Castlebar but over the past month his play has been fizzing.

He started in the subsequent game against Dublin and kicked two points in a scrappy, low-key match. In the semi-final against Down, he chipped another three points but it was the playmaking – sharp passes delivered nonchalantly – that revealed another string to his bow.

“Paul has definitely been playing a more central role for Cork and that is suiting him,” says Kirwan.

“People know that he has this explosive pace and can get his scores but when I see him playing for the club, in particular, he sometimes reminds me of Greg Blaney. You know; a traditional centre half forward who is the pivot of the forward line.

“If you look at Cork, the inside line probably takes care of itself so to have a player like Paul there who can pick off passes as he can makes sense. But he has been playing games for the club when he can too this year and he has been in really terrific form for us.”

Kerrigan, of course, comes from Nemo blueblood stock: his father Jimmy was captain of the club side when he won his third of five All-Ireland medals with the club and he also won two All-Ireland medals at the tail-end of a distinguished intercounty career with Cork.

Kerrigan junior has the same neatness and efficiency about his game and he has worn the pressure that comes with following in the father’s footsteps lightly, captaining the Cork Under-21 team to All-Ireland success in 2007 and stepping into the senior set-up shortly afterwards.

There were days – such as his 1-4 exhibition of craftsmanship in the 2009 demolition of Donegal – when he made it seem easy and other days – such as his 56th-minute point which gave Cork their first lead in the 2010 All-Ireland final – when he stepped up to hit big scores. If there was a concern for coaches, it lay in his tendency to play in spurts and then to drift to the periphery of the action for periods.

“That is something we have put to him in the club as well, Kirwan acknowledges. “He wants to lead the forward line and has the talent to do that and his game is about making the other players around him tick.”

Kerrigan’s versatility has made him hard to categorise: speed-merchant, free-taker, goalscorer: he is all of those things but doesn’t specialise in any of them. With Nemo, he is a hugely influential figure but his game has been based on enhancing the gifts of his team-mates rather than running the show.

“Is he vocal? Well, he is not in the same way as his father would be!” says Kirwan. “But he will stand up and say what he feels needs to be said, be it positive or negative, in a sharp and purposeful way.

“The others would listen to him when he talks and he tends to get the message across. It’s not as if he is a constant voice in our dressingroom but he is listened to.

“And he is at the stage now with Cork where he can adopt a similar role for younger players like Colm O’Neill and Ciarán Sheehan.”

Do Cork have a leader in the attack? Perhaps they have never needed one.

They seem to have it all, from blue chip scorers like Donnacha O’Connor and Colm O’Neill to rangy point-getters like Paddy Kelly, attacking half-backs and scoring midfielders. Add Kerrigan’s explosive pace to that concoction and more often than not, they just find ways to score more than their rivals. But for all that talent, this is a defining year for Cork.

They now feel the obligation to show themselves, if not their public, they have more in them than one All-Ireland senior title.

After they won their semi-final a fortnight ago in a near-deserted Croke Park, Kerrigan said the experience was surreal, quipping that they were well used to playing in front of small crowds in Cork but not in Dublin.

It was another tacit acknowledgement that, in Cork, the football team has always had to work harder than the hurlers to earn the public affection. But it was also an acknowledgement that Croke Park is where this Cork team expect to feature.

This may “only” be a league final and Cork have made it this far without offering satisfactory proof that they are set for another All-Ireland summer. But chasing a three-in-a-row of national titles is nothing to be scoffed at and the recent displays by Kerrigan suggest they are travelling in the right direction and picking up the pace.