Preview

A look at the Munster Senior Football Fnal

Billy Morgan's football universe is largely built around Kerry. It's just that much of what Morgan has needed to do for Cork football has necessarily involved going through Kerry whether as a player en route to All-Ireland finals, as a manager breaking the neighbours' stranglehold on Munster as a first step to winning back-to-back Sam Maguires in the 1980s and '90s or latterly reconstituting his county's challenge at a time of plenty for Kerry.

One of the first tributes I remember being paid to Morgan on resuming command in 2003 was he would have a plan, a strategy for Kerry.

He did, but for a while lacked the players to implement it.

When it finally came to fruition a year ago it was at the expense of a misfiring Kerry and that verdict was comprehensively overturned in August's All-Ireland semi-final. By then, Kerry had found Kieran Donaghy and Cork had lost Graham Canty. Furthermore, Michael Shields was carted off injured early on.

In the end a six-point defeat wasn't bad.

Have Cork improved since then? The answer would appear to be they have. Mickey O'Sullivan, the former Kerry manager now in charge of Limerick, says that having played Cork in competition three times this year he believes they improved each time.

They also carry the advantage of a couple of more searching matches against Limerick and Tipperary than Kerry's zero-stress outing against Waterford.

Part of that improvement is in personnel. In Michael Cussen, Morgan unearthed his own Donaghy, a towering full forward who uses the ball efficiently. He's not as fast as his Kerry counterpart - and Tom O'Sullivan is a very quick full back - but if the right type of ball goes in, Cork will prosper.

Around the middle Cork have more strength and mobility and can build an effective platform. Kerry's most conspicuous advantage is they have more scoring forwards. For all Cork's improvement in spreading the scoring burden, James Masters has still produced 3-14 in two matches, which argues a continuing over-reliance.

Kerry also arrive with natural concerns: defending All-Ireland champions, under new management, two newcomers to one of the best defences in football.

If they start well Pat O'Shea's side will probably exert intolerable pressure on Cork, but the longer the contest goes on the more the visitors will rise to the occasion.

KERRY: D Murphy; P Reidy, T O'Sullivan, M Ó Sé; T Ó Sé, A O'Mahony, K Young; D Ó Sé, M Quirke; D O'Sullivan, E Brosnan, P Galvin; C Cooper, K Donaghy, MF Russell.

CORK: P O'Shea; M Shields, G Canty, K O'Connor; N O'Leary, G Spillane, A Lynch; D Kavanagh, N Murphy; F Goold, P O'Neill, K McMahon; J Masters, M Cussen, D O'Connor.

Referee: Marty Duffy (Sligo).