Sympathy offered after tough week

Cork manager Larry Tompkins came to the Kerry dressing-room immediately after the game and expressed his sympathy to the losing team in what he said must have been an extremely difficult week for everyone.

In a clear reference to the sudden death of Michael Ó Sé last Tuesday, he said: "You showed fantastic spirit in the circumstances and I would expect nothing less from a Kerry team because you are a very proud county and for very good reason.

"We have had our battles on the field over the years but in recent times you have come out on top on more than just a few occasions and ye have gone on and won the Munster and All-Ireland titles and I hope that we can now do the same.

"You gave us a fantastic sporting game and kept coming back at us with the same fire which has made ye a great football team." Later Tompkins added: "We have been gearing for this clash with Kerry for several months and were physically and mentally ready. I knew that it was not going to be easy and we needed to be at our best to win it.

"I thought we played some very good football but missed a few chances and they kept coming back as I expected but in the end I thought we deserved our victory.

"We are not counting any chickens ahead of Tipperary but I think this is a very mature team who want success and I would hope that we can actually improve from this and go on and do what Kerry have done in recent years."

The Kerry dressing-room was subdued, but team manager Páidí Ó Sé admitted that he felt the writing was on the wall when they failed to get another score after the goal from Mike Frank Russell.

"After the save by Declan O'Keeffe from the penalty we attacked and were very close to a score which could have made a difference, but we did get the goal and I thought that would have ignited us but it didn't and I think that was the sign that we were in trouble. It just was not happening for us tonight."

He said the death of his brother, who was the father of Kerry players Darragh, Tomás and Marc Ó Sé, made it a hard week.

"I know it was a very difficult week for the lads and a difficult week for me but the support we received was out of this world and it helped to heal the shock of it all," Ó Sé said.

"You get knocks from time to time. This was a different type of a knock, but the support meant an awful lot to us and it took an awful lot of weight off our tragedy."