Kingdom have form and incentive required

IT’S historic and probably unique in terms of a local derby at Croke Park in an All-Ireland context.

Yet, tomorrow’s clash of Cork and Kerry in the Bank of Ireland football championship semi-final is so attractive because of the questions it poses in relation to the contrasting performances in their two earlier meetings in the Munster semi-final and their respective form now.

There’s absolutely no doubt about the fact that the presence of team captain Darragh Ó Sé is critical to Kerry’s prospects of winning at their third attempt. He is playing arguably the best football of his career and while I wouldn’t go so far as to suggest that Kerry could not hope to win without him, it would be improbable. Equally, from a Cork perspective, it would be a massive blow to have to line out with Colin Corkery. Notwithstanding the fact that he is also their captain, he has been just as inspirational.