Too many question marks hang over Cork

League is league and championship is championship. Behind this banal truism lies the truth of tomorrow's Munster football final at Pairc Ui Chaoimh. Not alone does Cork's recently-acquired National League title count for little going into this encounter with Kerry, its lustre hasn't even survived two of the most perfunctory rounds of football to be found in any of the provinces.

Cork can't be blamed for the fact that they were drawn against Waterford and Limerick in two matches they had no chance of losing and that Kerry received the benefit - such as it was - of the two more competitive outings against Tipperary and Clare.

Yet even manager Larry Tompkins can't be sure how the moderately good performances of the spring will stand up to the full rigours of serious championship activity.

On the negative side, pessimists will point out that the win over Limerick was dreadfully laboured - to an extent camouflaged by a flattering scoreline, an unanswered 1-6 of which was run off in the closing 10 minutes.

It's probably only fair to accept that just as Cork received little credit for rubbing out Waterford by 28 points, their struggle or lack of concentration in the Limerick semi-final shouldn't be regarded as too significant either.

More worrying is the lack of data from these matches. Principally, the concern will be about centrefield which was an area decisively lost to Kerry in last year's meeting of the teams.

Cork have an entirely different pairing to 12 months ago and will draw some comfort from the fact that when he came on as a substitute, Nicholas Murphy, who starts tomorrow, had some impact on curbing Kerry's superiority. As against that he was subdued in the counties' under-21 meeting by a partnership as near tomorrow's Kerry team as Christmas.

Attack is also a problem area for Cork. At times during the league, they moved well with Joe Kavanagh and Mark O'Sullivan combining particularly effectively. More recent evidence is less compelling, with Kavanagh being well taken care of by David Heaney in a challenge against Mayo. Tomorrow Seamus Moynihan faces up to him on the 40. Eeeek!

O'Sullivan has always struggled with consistency and whereas on form he can be devastating, he has yet to deliver regularly at that standard. It is equally true that he is a maligned player, receiving little credit unless such recognition is unavoidable.

Nonetheless there are questions over whether he should be picked at full forward - unless Cork are planning to use his height for some route one ball and that is not really his game any more than it is his marker Barry O'Shea's.

Elsewhere there are so many other imponderables: can Podsie O'Mahony at last cough up a top-notch performance in the championship; can Philip Clifford shrug off the unhappy memory of the under-21 shut-out by Michael McCarthy, although he is marked this time by the more expressive Killian Burns; what penetration is likely to result from Don Davis crashing into Eamonn Breen?

The Cork forward who caused most alarm in Killarney last year was Alan O'Regan and his form is sufficiently disimproved to see him dropped for this weekend.

This match's cockpit will, however, be at the other end of the field. Kerry's attack has earned the reputation - albeit against an under-performing Tipperary and under-strength Clare - of being more multi-faceted this year, less abjectly dependent on Maurice Fitzgerald.

Captain John Crowley has continued the improved trajectory of last year, while Aodan MacGearailt and John McGlynn have brought additional scoring power to the forwards. They combined impressively against Clare, even allowing for the weakened opposition, and when faced with something of a crisis against Tipperary, put the foot down to ease clear at the end.

Liam Hassett's return to the team at centre forward will be closely scrutinised. Noel Kennelly's injury has given the former captain an opportunity to restake his claim for inclusion.

Although he brings solidity to the 40, Hassett doesn't major in the more creative duties of a centre forward and it remains to be seen whether this will have an impact on the workings of the attack.

Cork's defence has been comfortably the most impressive part of the team this year. Owen Sexton at centre back is quick and combative and will disrupt Hassett's proven ability to feed off breaking ball. He has been one of the notable figures in a unit which has defended with conviction and counter-attacked with style.

It is, however, short one of its best players with Micheal O'Donovan only just back from injury. His replacement, Ronan McCarthy, is an intelligent and versatile footballer, but not the minted corner-back specialist O'Donovan is.

In conclusion there are too many question marks over Cork from centrefield up and although their defence is worthy opposition, they'll hardly prevent the Kerry forwards from assembling a bigger score than Cork themselves manage at the other end.

KERRY: D O'Keeffe; M McCarthy, B O'Shea, K Burns; T O Se, S Moynihan, E Breen; D O Se, D Daly; J McGlynn, L Hassett, D O Cinneide; J Crowley (c), A MacGearailt, M Fitzgerald.

CORK: K O'Dwyer; R McCarthy, S O hAilpin, A Lynch; C O'Sullivan, O Sexton, M Cronin; N Murphy, Michael O'Sullivan; D Davis, J Kavanagh, P O'Mahony; P Clifford (c), Mark O'Sullivan, A Dorgan.

Referee: P McEneaney (Monaghan).