Cork 1-17 Kerry 0-12:THE SUN beat down on Páirc Uí Chaoimh for Saturday's Munster senior football semi-final replay and the sands of time appeared to be running out on Kerry.
In the best display seen to date in this year’s championship, the provincial title-holders presented with a flourish their credentials as All-Ireland contenders and gave Kerry their biggest beating in the province for 19 years.
Naturally, the post-match discussions were laden with caveats. Cork have enjoyed far greater success against their neighbours in the Munster championship than they have managed to reproduce on the national stage, a contrast rammed home unforgivingly by Kerry on a variety of occasions.
Kerry also have the experience of rebuilding a season from the rubble of poor performances in early summer and the last replay defeat by Cork three years ago proved the springboard to an All-Ireland.
And Jack O’Connor’s team are not full strength at present. Kieran Donaghy is, in his absence, proving just how important his presence is to this team. Throw in the facts that Tommy Walsh was carrying an injury, Darragh Ó Sé looked well short of championship fitness and the team’s best defender, Marc Ó Sé, had to leave injured at half-time and it’s obvious Kerry’s longer-term prospects aren’t to be judged just yet.
But intimations of mortality still have to be taken seriously in a group of players most of whom have been around for the past five All-Ireland finals – a feat that not even Mick O’Dwyer’s fabled troops managed to accomplish.
Cork manager Conor Counihan was taking it easy afterwards, but in his two seasons he has put Munster titles back-to-back for the first time in 14 years and last year his team showed a resilience in Croke Park that was a definite advance on previous seasons.
He is also blending some serious up-and-coming talent into the side.
At his disposal are two of the past three All-Ireland under-21 champions and most of this year’s impressive Cork IT Sigerson Cup winners.
In these pages on Saturday, John O’Keeffe made the point that for the first time in ages Cork have a strong bench and it was noticeable how when Counihan called the changes – which he does without hesitation – the replacements boosted the team performance, adding pace and penetration and leaving Kerry floundering in their wake.
Fintan Goold drove through the flagging cover and both he and Paul O’Flynn got on the scoreboard in the second half after being sprung.
Crash-site investigators can point to the 47th-minute penalty – Pádraig Reidy taking down Daniel Goulding – that Donnacha O’Connor, who delivered another damaging display against Kerry, squeezed in as a turning point.
It drained the energy from the opponents, who had strung together an excellent 10 minutes after half-time to wipe out the five-point interval deficit. The penalty and a pointed free from Goulding a couple of minutes later all but wiped out the recovery.
From then on, the home side lengthened their stride and Kerry couldn’t stay with them, losing the remainder of the match by 0-8 to 0-3. As expected, the Cork selection showed changes from the team announced during the week.
Ray Carey came in at corner back for Kieran O’Connor and bared his teeth immediately, harassing and dispossessing Bryan Sheehan in the sixth minute.
Noel O’Leary started – inevitably after his success in reining in Paul Galvin during the drawn match in Killarney a week previously – instead of Ger Spillane and maybe just as inevitably got involved with Galvin in the 26th minute, an incident that led to straight red cards for the fiery duo.
Two frees from Sheehan sent Kerry into an early lead, but, by the 16th minute, Goulding had flighted over a point to put Cork in front and they were never behind thereafter.
Already, the relentless pace of Cork was in evidence, their backs always ready to push forward, Paul Kerrigan and Patrick Kelly raiding on the wings and creating openings for Donnacha O’Connor, Goulding and James Masters to dart into. Kick-out strategy was primarily to bring Kerry’s midfielders to the wings and put the ball down on centre forward Pearse O’Neill, who dominated Aidan O’Mahony and required the second-half redeployment of Tommy Griffin to centre back.
O’Neill nearly added to his goal-scoring record against Kerry after being sent galloping through the middle after a strong run from Michael Shields, who seemed to be pioneering the role of an attacking full back, but the shot was carelessly wide.
In recognition of Tadhg Kennelly’s rapid reintegration into football, Graham Canty was switched to the former AFL medallist’s wing. It was a fascinating tussle in the first half, as Kennelly got on to a lot of ball and kicked a great point from over 35 metres, but with Kerry’s challenge crumbling after half-time the Listowel man found it increasingly difficult, whereas by the end Canty was in dominant form, sweeping up ball and recycling it as an attacking threat.
The icy calm of Cork’s defensive work was also a feature of the match.
They took what looked like suicidal risks playing keep-ball until a runner got free and the counter-play could be activated and Kerry struggled to stay with it. Anthony Lynch had a superb afternoon on Colm Cooper.
The great Dr Crokes forward has been affected by the indisposition of his usual fullforward partner, Donaghy, and he couldn’t get on top of Lynch, kicking wide on the one occasion he gave his marker the slip just before half-time. He was held scoreless from play.
Cork’s attacks were far more menacing. O’Connor and Goulding kicked good points and Masters overcame early uncertainty to be a source of constant threat as the match progressed.
Kerry’s one encouraging spell, just after half-time, exposed Cork’s left-wing defence. Darran O’Sullivan, sent in for Sheehan after half an hour, ran riot down that wing and Darragh Ó Sé added a point from the same zone.
This busy and productive phase levelled the match, but the momentum didn’t last.
Cork’s penalty was quickly followed by Declan O’Sullivan moving to full forward with Walsh having to leave and Kerry’s competitiveness waned alarmingly.
Once Darragh Ó Sé was withdrawn with about 15 minutes to go, there was no resistance detectable anywhere.
CORK:1 A Quirke; 17 R Carey, 3 M Shields, 4 A Lynch; 6 G Canty, 5 J Miskella (0-2), 19 N O'Leary; 8 A O'Connor, 9 N Murphy; 10 P Kelly (0-1), 11 P O'Neill, 12 P Kerrigan (0-1); 13 D Goulding (0-5, two frees), 14 J Masters (0-1), 15 D O'Connor (1-5, goal a penalty and three frees). Subs: 22 F Goold (0-1) for Murphy (half-time), 26 P O'Flynn (0-1) for Kerrigan (56 mins), 23 J Hayes for Kelly (65 mins), 31 F Lynch for A O'Connor (68 mins). Yellow cards: M Shields (29 mins), J Miskella (43 mins). Red card: O'Leary (26 mins)
KERRY: 1 D Murphy; 2 M Ó Sé, 3 T OSullivan, 4 P Reidy; 7 K Young, 6 A O'Mahony, 5 T Ó Sé; 8 D Ó Sé (0-1), 9 T Griffin; 10 P Galvin, 11 Declan O'Sullivan (0-1), 12 T Kennelly (0-1); 13 C Cooper (0-4, all frees), 14 T Walsh, 15 B Sheehan (0-2, one free). Subs: 17 Darran O'Sullivan (0-2) for Sheehan (29 mins), 19 D Moran (0-1, 45) for M Ó Sé (half-time), 21 A O'Shea for Reidy (50 mins), 18 D Walsh for T Walsh (53 mins), 24 E Brosnan for D Ó Sé (57 mins). Yellow cards: T Griffin (10 mins), T Ó Sé (33 mins) Red card: Galvin (26 mins).
Attendance:30,270.
Referee: P McEnaney (Monaghan).
