Resilient Cork get champions' number

GAELIC GAMES:THE WHOLE Cork-Kerry business had been wearing a bit thin of late. Cork's achievement of full-throttle competitiveness in the Munster football championship has been repeatedly undermined by the scale of the beatings the county shipped from the neighbours in the All-Ireland series on four occasions already this decade.

So there was only so much Cork could do to redeem themselves yesterday in rain-drenched Páirc Uí­ Chaoimh. Whereas that task probably still awaits completion at a later date in the championship, Cork under their new manager, Conor Counihan, did all that could have been asked of them when shooting down the Munster and All-Ireland champions in this year's provincial final.

It wasn't just the fact of the win. Twice in recent years Cork have defeated Kerry in Munster only to have the achievement cruelly contextualised within weeks by the same opponents.

But yesterday was a resurrection. Having got the highest-profile of their All-Ireland defeats in last September's final, Cork went in at half-time yesterday trailing the champions by eight, 1-8 to 0-3, and with defeat looking inevitable as rain periodically hammered down on the ground - during the interval it looked in danger of dissolving the unfortunate children engaged in exhibition matches.

Instead Cork reinvented themselves after the break. Dispensing with the tactic of a seventh defender and deciding to resume in conventional formation, manager Counihan introduced Michael Cussen to mobilise his six-and-a-half-foot presence on the edge of Kerry's square.

"Tactics and upping our game," was the explanation of Cork's busy corner back Diarmuid Duggan when asked what had changed the match. "When we realised it (the extra defender) wasn't working in the first half we changed back to an orthodox 15 against 15. The first score or two settled us and we just took it from there and kept it going. We realised that maybe we are as good as them after all."

He also paid tribute to the impact of Cussen's arrival.

"We got a couple of handy scores off him tapping down the ball and fellas breaking off him so that was a huge lift for us. It helped us outfield as well because instead of trying to work it we were able to leave the ball in long as he was winning it."

The second half was not, however, one seamlessly positive narrative for Cork. Their captain Graham Canty had to be replaced just after the restart, having aggravated a knee injury to the point where there are fears he may have again sustained damage to the cruciate ligament.

A few minutes before that bad news the team had lost Nicholas Murphy to a second yellow card and the half-time pessimism had only deepened.

Cussen's arrival radicalised the challenge. He provided a target and although his handling initially wasn't assured, the big Glanmire player dominated the aerial exchanges with Aidan O'Mahony and broke ball invitingly for his fellow forwards.

In the 50th minute he got a touch after Ger Spillane had dropped a long ball in on the square and the half-time gap was down to two: 1-8 to 1-10.

The tide was really running against the champions by now. A minute later Marc Ó Sé was red-carded for a collision with Seán O'Brien, thought by many to be a harsh call, and in the 68th minute captain Tomás found himself the only member of the Ó Sé clan still on the field after Darragh received a second yellow card for a push on Pearse O'Neill.

Their manager didn't make excuses on the back of the sendings-off but neither did he give the decisions a ringing endorsement.

"To be honest, I had a bad angle for Marc's one," said Pat O'Shea. "He was coming into the ball from one side and Seán O'Brien coming in from the other. Marc actually turned to shield the ball and there was obviously momentum on the ground and all that. I genuinely thought that Marc's one and Darragh's last one weren't even frees."

Kerry's inert response was almost as surprising as the comeback. The first-half sharpness - no forwards kicked any wides - was comprehensively blunted and bafflingly little resistance offered as Cork charged back into the match.

Had the earlier one-way traffic left the champions complacent?

"To be honest about it, no," said O'Shea. "Fellas spoke well in the dressingroom and we felt we would take the game to Cork again in the second half. There was no complacency.

"It's hard to pinpoint exactly where we went wrong. We struggled to keep possession of the ball and gave it away too easily. We defended poorly in the second half for a team that had defended very well in the first half and has a proud defensive record. Unfortunately we found it difficult to hold Cork back when they got on a roll.

They were kicking for scores from all angles and made it almost impossible for us in the second half to mount a challenge."

According to Duggan, Cork knew what had to be done at half-time: "We were eight points down so it was all or nothing. We knew we could come back into it but whether we could or not, the first few scores were a big thing . . . we realised we were only a few points behind and we kept pushing it on.

"Our tactics weren't working because we had the extra man back and they were shooting from far out and by the time we were rushing out to them it was too late so we had to get tighter and go for them man for man."

The championship now heads for the serious phase. Whereas no one was writing off Cork's chances few thought they'd actually bounce back as quickly from last September's mortification.

It might have been a freak occurrence, further manifestation of Kerry's longer-range priorities or a sign of things to come.

But whatever the coming weeks have in store, Cork face into them with renewed sense of purpose and Kerry's road to the three-in-row has just grown more complicated.