No excuses, says Morgan, but Cork will be back

CORK coach Billy Morgan graciously accepted that his side were totally outplayed in yesterday’s All-Ireland semi-final by Kerry and had no excuses to offer for the 13 point defeat.

“What can I say. Kerry were masterful all over the field and we can have no complaints. Everything seemed to go right for them. Our play was to win midfield and launch our challenge from there, but Kerry clearly had their homework done.

“They were obviously mindful of our aerial dominance in our previous outings, and they broke the ball from our pair and had their men running on to it at every opportunity.

“What disappoints me most was the amount of time they were given on the ball. In a stadium as big as Croke Park teams will be punished for slack marking and we paid a heavy price for giving Kerry far too much room to pick our their colleagues in attack.”

Asked about the decision to start Derek Kavanagh despite his injury, Morgan countered by saying that it was not a gamble on the part of the selectors to start him.

“Derek is a very honest player and would not have started if he felt he was not in a position to do so. He would have put the interests of the team first, that I’m sure of. Yesterday I didn’t give him a chance of playing, but he did a fitness test this morning and said he was fit enough to play and we took him at his word. Obviously he was not 100% fit but we felt he would give us that extra bit around midfield, but we couldn’t cope with Kerry’s ploy of breaking the ball. We weren’t picking up any breaks and that was where they punished us.

“We started very well and looked to have them in trouble, but once they got the upper hand at midfield where we were expected do well, we began to struggle.

“You must remember also that we didn’t enjoy any luck around the Kerry square. We did create a couple of goal chances, but all credit to Kerry they got in some great block-downs by crowding their goal area every time we attacked. Their tactic of getting men back behind the ball worked well for them. Had they not scored a goal we were still in with a chance as the deficit was manageable, but Brosnan’s goal was a killer blow and we never recovered from that.

“For the first time this season we also failed to dominate in the half-back line, and here also the Kerry tactics of stopping the man going forward worked well for them. On one occasion I saw Anthony Lynch almost have the jersey pulled off him as he tried to attack.

“When you look back on the Munster final and the All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway, I’m at a complete loss as to why we played so poorly. I’m devastated really because I know we are a far better team that what we showed out there today.”

Looking to the future Morgan defiantly said Cork would be back. “It’s a very young team with a bright future. We have won the last two Munster U21 titles and were beaten by the eventual All-Ireland champions. I would be very hopeful for the future of Cork football.”