Kerry have Cussen on their minds

THERE’s scope for nit-picking. But it’s a more accurate reflection of Cork’s value to point to the fact that yesterday, they secured a place in a fourth All-Ireland semi-final in-a-row.

Conor Counihan, his management and panel of players are in a good place. There are more options off the bench, more square pegs for square holes. Consequently, the shape of the side on the field looks better. They have Derek Kavanagh pencilled in at full back, picked up Alan O’Connor as a back-up midfielder, and have John Hayes on fire up front Anthony Lynch is back to full fitness and Daniel Goulding is playing with the confidence of a man assured of his place. Not to mention that Michael Cussen is in serious danger of forcing me to change my opinion of his worth.

Of course, none of that will matter if Kerry do their usual Croke Park number on Cork in two weeks’ time.

However, playing the old enemy will render as irrelevant one of Cork’s biggest weaknesses — the inability to close out a game against ‘inferior’ opposition.

Once again yesterday Cork made a game of it when there was no need to. But that’s been a problem with Cork football through the decades, though it’s unlikely to be an issue against Kerry, or Dublin/Tyrone if they make it that far.

For 20 odd minutes, it was a textbook performance from Cork. But once Cussen steered home a second goal, Cork’s mind-set underwent an alarming transformation. They mentally took their foot off the gas, and fellas started losing the run of themselves — defenders began losing possession in silly positions, fellas were throwing around wild passes and the Rebels were guilty of poor shot selection. Basically, Cork went from slick to sloppy and offered Kildare a sniff when they had no reason to be hopeful.

I said it on Saturday, and again now — Kildare are not in the same class as Cork, but we’ve been the same through the decades — making inferior opposition look as good as Cork. Contrast the trait with the summary execution of Wexford by Dublin in the Leinster final, or the turbo-charged last 15 minutes by Kerry on Saturday. Apart from last year’s semi-final against Meath, when was the last time Cork put a team away clinically? Armagh paid a heavy price for such a failing on Saturday. I hope it won’t come back to haunt Conor Counihan’s men.

Speaking of nightmares, one wonders how the Kerry selectors are thinking now? Even with Graham Canty and possibly Nicholas Murphy to return, Michael Cussen has made it virtually impossible to drop him for the semi-final. And that could radically alter Kerry’s defensive strategy, given the way their full back line was tormented by Joe Bergin again on Saturday.

It’s an interesting conundrum for O’Shea. Clearly all is not well in defence, and though it was my first time getting sight of Daniel Bohane, he seems big, fit and fast, and has to have a shout of starting against Cork.

However that’s Kerry’s problem. Conor Counihan and the selectors have their own issues, though of a less stressful variety — who to leave out of the attack?

Once again, John Hayes was excellent, razor-sharp in everything he did. He scored one goal, should have had another (if Daniel Goulding had picked him out) and is a cert to start the semi-final. If you retain Pearse O’Neill, Donncha O’Connor, Sean O’Brien, Goulding and Cussen, does that mean no place for James Masters? The Nemo man kicked some good scores, but I thought his work-rate left a little to be desired. There’s more in him.

Defensively, Michael Shields got a good 20 minutes under his belt, and Ger Spillane had as good an afternoon in Cork red as he’s had all season. Things are good — in fact, too good for a while yesterday, which is why the selectors might have got a bit ahead of themselves with the raft of substitutions in-a-row. It seemed to break the focus of the team, leading to an unnecessarily scary climax. Cork also lost the grip on midfield though it would have been a travesty had Kildare snatched a draw.

One other small nit-pick. Cork’s free-taking was not clinical enough for me. Against Kerry every free will count — just like it did when the unnerring Bryan Sheehan stepped up to the plate against Galway.

Things might be good for Cork — but they can get a lot better still.