Moynihan has ‘slim’ hope of making semi-final

SEAMUS MOYNIHAN has little hope of being fit for Kerry’s Bank of Ireland football championship semi-final against Derry.

After missing out on the two Munster final games with Limerick and Saturday’s quarter-final win over Dublin because of a troublesome ankle injury, it appears the Glenflesk star will again have to sit out the Derry clash on Sunday week.

“I really don’t know. The ankle just isn’t clearing. At this stage my chances are probably slim,” he commented.

“It comes with the territory in sport. There are a lot of other guys injured Donal Daly injured his hand, while Seamus Scanlon and Tommy Griffin also have ankle problems.

“The big thing with injuries is to overcome them as quickly as you can. But, this one has been very stubborn and I’m really struggling with it.

“I’ll see how it goes, but in fairness to the lads, you could not fault any of the six backs on Saturday.

“The most important thing was the result. I thought the lads played very well in the second-half. We lived a bit dangerously in the first-half, when Dublin had three good goalscoring chances. To go in level at half-time was great, but I think the score flattered us. Derry will be much stiffer opposition.”

Selector Johnny Culloty, who missed out on the last Kerry/Derry championship clash in 1958 through injury, agreed that Dara Ó Cinnéide’s early second-half goal marked the turning point.

“Dara finished it well and from there on we took our points nicely. We were putting daylight between us the whole time,” he stated.

Recognising that Kerry had again played their best football in the second-half, Culloty believed they didn’t exploit their possession in the first-half. “We started okay, for about the first ten minutes, but then we started kicking the ball long into the full-forwards. They were 50/50 balls that we weren’t winning. In the second-half we held on to the ball and worked it up the field. There was a vast difference.”

Colm Cooper, the outstanding forward on the day, agreed that the pace of the game after half-time was more to their liking.

“Dublin came out of the traps really quickly, I suppose it’s their trademark. But, the game opened up a bit more in the second-half and we had a bit more space inside. We were playing against a slight breeze so the ball was holding a bit.”

Meanwhile, the Cork team to play Kerry in tomorrow night’s Munster U21 football final in Tralee (7pm), shows just one change from the side that defeated Limerick in the semi-final. Rob Long, who came on in that game for Jonathan O’Shea, holds his place at right corner-forward.

Kerry will announce their team today.

CORK (U21 FC v Kerry): K. Murphy; M. Prout, D. O’Donovan, B. Crowley; N. O’Riordan, P. Nealon, E. O’Connor; S. O’Sullivan, D. Coughlan; C. O’Riordan, P. Kelly, J. Hayes; R. Long, T. Twomey, K. O’Sullivan.