O'Connor praises return of Ó Sé

There might have been an earthquake in Croke Park but ground didn't shift much in Killarney's Fitzgerald Stadium. Under-strength and unfancied, Cork came to town and largely complied with the script. Back for a repeat of last year's Munster final against Limerick, champions Kerry were still on-message once the final whistle had gone.

Séamus Moynihan, maintaining his peerless form at wing back, smoothly took the opportunity to talk up two teams at once. "People thought we played badly against Clare - I thought Clare played well and are a good team, so that game really stood to us and the fact that Cork hadn't played a competitive game for 10 weeks told against them."

Cork's lack of match practice became a recurring theme, mentioned also by Kerry manager Jack O'Connor.

But their defeated opponents seemed less sure about the debilitating effects of their long lay-off.

"I don't know," said Ciarán O'Sullivan dismissively. "I can't answer that. We had very competitive (challenge) games against Wexford and Dublin. I don't think that was a factor. We just weren't good enough on the day and there's no point saying otherwise."

The only improvisation took place in the opening 20 minutes when Cork looked sharp and eager, devouring possession and launching a wave of attacks. Kerry were on the back foot.

"That's because they were winning so many breaks," said O'Connor, "and popping nice ball into space in front of the full forward line. I was happy with our defence because they were playing tight and not giving away any bad frees. So despite their possession we were well there at half-time.

"At half-time we emphasised that we had to win the breaks because the Cork half-back line in the first half won an awful lot of breaks, so that was one area we were very concerned with and we improved immensely in the second half. We also felt that bringing on Dara Ó Cinnéide would create more space for our two inside forwards."

These corrective measures ran in tandem with Cork's waning sense of purpose. Kerry, for their part, competed throughout the field with a tenacity that has been the hallmark of the manager's first year.

Another encouraging aspect of the match was the form of the centrefield pairing William Kirby and Darragh Ó Sé. The latter has been struggling with an injury and is short of match practice. Yesterday they were up against Cork's best player, Graham Canty.

"They were being written off and that's a great way to go into a game," said O'Connor, warming to the overstatement. "They answered their doubters today. A lot of people were saying that Darragh Ó Sé had gone off the boil, but the biggest factor was that he had only played a game-and-a-half at intercounty level over the past eight months. You can't flick a switch to get it back. He showed fantastic appetite in the past few weeks and was excellent today."

Billy Morgan, by his own admission, is spreading the burden on his return to intercounty management and was calm enough afterwards considering the comprehensive nature of the defeat.

"What went wrong was the scores we missed earlier on. We were looking for a good start and took the game to them and had a goal chance and a few points chances and didn't take them. At half-time we felt we were in with a right chance, four points down.

"But we started over-carrying and doing things that we'd tried to get out of the game in training. I thought we slipped into old bad habits in the second half."

Further evidence of his more - and this is hard to say - mellow approach was evident when he was asked about the physical challenge posed by Kerry.

"They have stated that they have brought a new steel into their game and they certainly have," he began. "I mean . . . ah no I shouldn't say that, that's unfair. On the day they were a much better team."

With Cork's injury and suspension list easing, it was implicit in Morgan's demeanour that on the next day his side will be a much better team.