Kerry have travelled further than neighbours

All-Ireland SF semi-final: Tomorrow's Bank of Ireland All-Ireland football semi-final moves the championship into uncharted territory with the first meeting of Cork and Kerry at this stage, and there's a sense that no one is sure what to make of this pairing. Seán Moran reports.

Whereas there hasn't been the same outpourings of dismay that accompanied last year's series of re-runs in the quarter-finals, it's impossible to avoid the impression that this ancient local rivalry isn't sparking in an All-Ireland context.

The distance involved is the main reason behind the anticipation of a small crowd but the decision to stage what is a national occasion at Croke Park is surely correct. Nonetheless behind the subdued build-up is the prospect of a fascinating match.

Kerry's big wins and flashy forward play have marked them out as a cut above what's left and that favouritism may also be depressing expectations, but it would be unwise to make too many assumptions. The central issue tomorrow centres on the very question of how real - or illusory - is the Kerry revival since the defeat by Cork in the Munster semi-final two months ago.

This is a matter of style and substance. None of the teams Kerry have played since then have provided much in the way of opposition. Galway fell prey to the curse of defending champions - a condition familiar to Kerry - whereas Kildare and, more particularly, Fermanagh and Wicklow never posed a threat.

Nonetheless the style of these wins was attractive and the positive interpretation argues that the shooting practice will have benefited the young and inexperienced forwards and raised their confidence levels. At times, for instance the opening blast against Galway, the attacking football has been spectacular.

Yet none of those matches was the type of fraught occasion that tomorrow promises to be nor the sort of challenge posed by Cork in June. Complicating matters further is that Kerry can point to extenuating circumstances on both days. In Killarney there was a downpour that led to much sliding around the place and as low-scoring a match as the counties have managed in 35 years.

The replay in Cork was overshadowed by the Ó Sé family bereavement to the extent that it may prove of limited relevance this weekend. But in the blizzard of uncertainty a few key points can be made.

Firstly, the respective forwards have both potential and question marks in roughly equal measure. The class and score-taking ability of the main marksmen, Colin Corkery and Michael Frank Russell, are proven beyond dispute. The Cork captain bears a heavier burden than the Kerry corner forward because of the way he has dominated matches this year - to the extent that he is in pole position for Footballer of the Year.

There has been less consistent back-up for Corkery than for Russell, but in June that wasn't particularly obvious - which means that Colm Cooper, Eoin Brosnan and Seán O'Sullivan still have to prove themselves at this level. Maybe their very encouraging displays of recent weeks will assist them doing so but they are all facing a physically intense 70 minutes - especially if Owen Sexton moves back onto Cooper.

Centrefield has been at the eye of the storm for the past week. Darragh Ó Sé's form made it important for Kerry to hang onto him and he will line out tomorrow. The controversy over his on-off suspension won't have been helpful, but as one sound judge of the game from Kerry put it, it's hardly a worse distraction for the captain than the last time the teams met when he was still mourning the sudden passing of his father.

Interestingly, Ó Sé's great season kicked in in Killarney after Séamus Moynihan was liberated from full back to help out in the sector. The evidence of that day and the replay was that they make a fine, complementary partnership, but in the absence of a viable alternative at full back, Moynihan stays put.

There is a school of thought that he is sacrificing his own game in vain - much as say Paul Curran did in the 1994 final when deployed on Mickey Linden. Corkery will get his scores anyway, the argument goes, but with Moynihan further out the field something could be done to stem the supply.

Yet Kerry's thinking is, presumably, that one day Moynihan will get the hang of Corkery and it's worth taking the chance that the day could be tomorrow.

The increasingly impressive Brendan Jer O'Sullivan aside, none of the other Cork forwards can be relied on to contribute major scores. Maurice McCarthy will supplement centrefield and the form of Joe Kavanagh, Philip Clifford and Fionán Murray is not currently consistent enough at this level.

In Cork's favour is their defeat of Kerry this year, the adaptability of the defence and the sense of serene purpose that Larry Tompkins has brought to the team this year. Against them is the potential of Kerry's forwards.

Out of this thicket of imponderables emerges the faint inkling that Kerry will substantiate their recent improvement by tomorrow evening.

How They Line Out

KERRY: 1 D O'Keeffe; 2 M Ó'Sé, 3 S Moynihan, 4 M McCarthy; 5 T Ó'Sé, 6 E Fitzmaurice, 7 J Sheehan; 8 D Ó Sé (capt), 9 D Daly; 10 S O'Sullivan, 11 E Brosnan, 12 L Hassett; 13 M F Russell, 14 D Ó'Cinnéide, 15 C Cooper.

CORK: 1 K O'Dwyer; 2 S Levis, 3 C O'Sullivan, 4 A Lynch; 5 E Sexton, 6 R McCarthy, 7 M Cronin; 8 N Murphy, 9 G Canty; 10 BJ O'Sullivan, 11 J Kavanagh, 12 M McCarthy; 13 P Clifford, 14 C Corkery, 15 F Murray.

REFEREE: B White (Wexford).