Miracle of Jones’ Road

FAMILIARITY, how many offspring have thee? However often Cork and Kerry seem to meet, they never leave us short of Monday morning chat at the water-cooler.

Capitulation is frequently the last word when these football foes duel — this time it’s Kerry doing the explaining. Indeed, it’s the second time in as many months that their coach Pat O’Shea has to try and make sense of a senseless collapse against the old enemy, Cork.

This week will be a difficult one for the All-Ireland champions in many senses, but the post mortems should be straightforward. Unlike Cork’s turbo-charged comeback in the Munster final, yesterday’s astonishing All-Ireland SFC semi-final climax was all about Kerry’s increasing inability to close the deal.

If ever a scoreline (1-13 to 3-7) failed to tell a tale, this is the scoreline. With four minutes of normal time remaining, a Bryan Sheehan free put Kerry 1-13 to 1-5 in front. Cork had scored one second-half point, and didn’t even seem bothered with damage limitation.

John Miskella sortied upfield for a consolation score greeted by virtual silence. Many of the 35,137 supporters had already left. John Hayes popped a free, and we wondered absent-mindedly why he hadn’t tried to engineer a goal. Kerry sub Sean O’Sullivan had space and time for another Kerry score, but his weak attempt scarcely seemed to matter.

Then reason and logic decided they’d been conservative long enough. Time for a bit of fun.

James Masters pilfered an unlikely goal, and, hey presto, it’s a one-score game.

Afterwards Conor Counihan, a Liverpool fan, mentioned the Reds’ Lazarus-act on Saturday at Anfield, and noted the conviction and confidence that drove them to search for a winner after a late equaliser. He referenced it in relation to his own comeback kids, but the issue is probably more relevant for Kerry this week.

For a team chasing three All-Irelands in-a-row, and carrying the football heritage it does, it’s nigh unforgivable to blow an eight-point lead in the final five minutes, irrespective of the circumstances.

That’s not all, though. The champions’ discipline has been suspect from their opening date with Clare, and it didn’t improve yesterday. Talisman Darragh Ó Sé will miss next weekend’s replay, after his straight red card two minutes in yesterday’s second half, but the circumstances of Donncha O’Connor’s dismissal 12 minutes later may get a committee forum this week. It also reflected poorly on Kerry’s Aidan O’Mahony, who collapsed in a theatrical heap under the weight of an O’Connor open-handed gesture.

Cork coach Conor Counihan won’t be pleased with the Ballydesmond man — not only did it take away Cork’s one-man advantage, it also removed the Rebels’ most potent attacker from the field — and, in all likelihood, from the replay.

But he won’t quibble with his players’ doggedness: “We know we didn’t play very well, and there’s huge scope for improvement. That has to be very positive from our point of view. We lost our shape when Darragh got sent off, the best of plans went out the window, but these fellas don’t give up easily.”

There was even a hint of last year’s barmy final about the game. Kerry enjoyed the better of the opening 35 minutes, but Cork dug in and helped by poor Kerry shooting, went in only a point behind at the break (1-5 to 1-4).

Graham Canty agreed afterwards that it took Cork, not Kerry, 20 minutes to steady themselves after Ó Sé’s dismissal in the 37th minute. Thirteen minutes later O’Connor’s sending off seemed to puncture whatever self-belief they had mustered from the numerical advantage.

Neither coach was involving themselves in a debate over the last-minute penalty for Cork, but John Hayes’s sublime finish, despite an unhelpful wait before the kick, deserves mention for the coolest finish of the season.

It didn’t stop there. Kerry, as they do, worked another scoring position for wing back Killian Young, but in keeping with the profligacy that yielded 14 wides, he struck the outside of Alan Quirke’s right hand post.

While Wexford’s Jason Ryan may claim the manager of the year award in football, no-one should under-estimate the stabilising influence Counihan has been on a Cork squad ravaged by the events of last September, Billy Morgan’s departure and the industrial action of the deep winter. In terms of hospital passes, it was one to avoid.

Counihan would like to believe the momentum is theirs heading into the replay, but further south west they’ve seven days to clear their heads and make sense of a calamitous Croke Park collapse.

However they won’t have Darragh Ó Sé, though perversely Cork’s miracle comeback keeps alive his chances of playing in another final, as he will serve his one-game suspension next weekend.

Not that Kerry will be looking to September yet. Not after this Croker choker.