Munster SFC: Final - Kerry v Cork, Pβirc U∅ Chaoimh, 2.30 (Net 2)

Tomorrow's Munster football final in Pβirc U∅ Chaoimh has built up such a one-sided consensus that it's beginning to worry Kerry people. It's possible to see both sides. Kerry are All-Ireland champions whereas Cork have been struggling for most of the past year. The semi-final struggle against Clare was merely the latest in a line of unconvincing performances.

Then again, what was there to recommend Cork two years ago. They had won the National League but that rarely stands to a team in the championship. They had developed a good defence but that wasn't fully proven until the Munster final. No, on the team-sheets there was little about the match in '99 that differentiates it from this weekend.

The most astonishing thing about that day was the complete meltdown of the Kerry attack which scored all of two points in the second half and managed just 2-4 for the match. Now, as then, they were missing an influential forward as Michael Francis Russell was unable to appear until the last few minutes.

Tomorrow Liam Hassett, the most improved player between the successes of 1997 and of last year, will be missing in the half forwards. His contribution last year was significant and in his absence the team lacks a physical, ball-winning focus. Another comparison with two years ago is that Maurice Fitzgerald is back in the full forward line.

This is apparently for real. Yet Fitzgerald's best performances last year were further out the field and his displays close to goal his least satisfactory. Ronan McCarthy marked him out of the '99 final and if the heavy ground was of assistance, the same happened with Brian Lacey the year previously and with Tomβs Meehan and Gary Fahey in last year's All-Ireland.

As a player who is good in the air and devastating in his use of the ball, Fitzgerald's optimum role nowadays is to make sense of the chaos between centrefield and the half forwards. His cross-field ball for Russell's first goal against Armagh last year demonstrated the point. That deployment remains a likely possibility at some stage tomorrow.

Additional surgery may be necessary anyway because the half forwards don't look best equipped to restrain the Cork half backs, the best line on the challengers' team. Between there and centrefield, Cork built a platform in the second half of last year's Killarney semi-final that nearly overturned a 10-point interval deficit.

Personnel in the middle has stayed fairly unchanged over the past few seasons. Kerry's centrefield was excellent in Killarney three years ago, badly undermined by Darragh ╙ SΘ's viral infection a year later and touched both extremes 12 months ago. But even allowing for inconsistencies within the Kerry line-up and their lack of serious action since last September, the champions look too strong. If there is a difference in Cork's capability compared to two years ago, it is that the attack has a less integrated look. On an individual level, can Colin Corkery repeat his scoring tour de force from 12 months ago playing on Seamus Moynihan? The prospect of a Cork win demands too much stretching from too thin a material.