Old dogs take the hard road in their stride
1 TACTICAL AWARENESS ON AND OFF THE FIELD WAS CRUCIAL
Tactical awareness both on and off the field was always going to play a vital role in deciding the destination of Sam and the fact that Sam will once again be heading to familiar territory is testimony to another fact and that is that both the Kerry players and their management team won the tactical battle decisively.
I, along with many others, felt that if Cork got a good start to this game they would be very difficult to beat and when they led 1-3 to 0-1 after ten minutes they seemed set to record a famous victory. But not for the first time they flattered to deceive. In that opening period it was obvious that Cork had targeted the Kerry kick-outs as they won five out of six through their half forwards’ sharpness under breaking ball. Then when most deliveries were aimed at Colm O’Neill it also became obvious that they were targeting Tommy Griffin as a potential weakness in the full back line. With 1-1 registered on the scoreboard by O’Neill this ploy was paying rich dividends.
However, the experienced Griffin recovered to more than hold his own and his team-mates showed no signs of panic either as they stuck rigidly to the game plan. That also included targeting Alan Quirke’s kick-outs, pilfering nine in total over the course of the first half with Seamus Scanlon outstanding in this regard. They were also transferring their hard won possession into the three inside forwards but no one individual in the Kerry full-forward line was expected to carry the load.
Cork’s selections of Shields on Walsh in the corner, O’Connor on Declan O Sullivan at full-forward and Lynch on Cooper in the left corner all backfired as none of the three saw out the 70 minutes in their starting positions and two were taken off in the second half.
The fact that it took the Cork management team just short of the 30th minute to make a change in this area was mystifying as not alone had Kerry registered seven unanswered points to completely cancel out Cork ‘s great start but their dominance was such that they should have been further ahead. If Walsh was the most effective of the three the other two also had the beating of their direct opponents and all earned scoreable frees.
2 TADHG KENNELLY’S SACRIFICE WAS VINDICATED
Paul Galvin and Darren O’Sullivan were dropping deep regularly and taking their markers with them allowing Tadhg Kennelly to utilise the space on the wings to the full. For Kennelly this day was the realisation of a personal dream and he more than justified his single- minded decision to return. A combination of these tactics ensured Cork ‘s expected dominance of the middle third never transpired and gave Kerry the platform to win this All-Ireland.
3 KERRY’S EXPERIENCE WAS UTILISED TO THE FULL
At the start of the second-half Cork did finally get to grips with Kerry in the middle of the field and good work by Murphy in particular and O’Connor saw them enjoy a period of concerted dominance.
Once again though Kerry’s experience stood them in good stead as they proceeded to alter their tactics by getting men behind the ball and a combination of good defensive play and poor shot selection from a variety of Cork players resulted in Cork registering nine wides in the half.
With a lot less possession in this half, Kerry, having soaked up the early pressure, went on to outscore Cork five points to two, with four of those scores coming from play and only two kicked wide.
Cork ‘s young forwards were devoid of ideas when it came to breaking Kerry’s resistance and only once threatened the Kerry goal when Diarmuid Murphy brought off a good save from Goulding to cement his All Star credentials.
The old adage “the old dog for the hard road” comes to mind when trying to sum up not alone this final but also the championship for this great Kerry team.
