QUESTION: IS THIS THE YEAR THE CORK FOOTBALLERS TAKE THE NEXT STEP?

JACK O’CONNOR hadn’t long taken his seat in the Croke Park interview room after last month’s National League final when talk turned to Cork who had been in action at HQ earlier that same day.

“They’re big men, anyway,” said the Kerry manager with a wry smile. O’Connor may or may not have returned to the inter-county game for an epochal showdown with Tyrone, but he knows Cork can’t be ignored.

To do so would be like turning your back on a viper to confront a rattlesnake, and Cork have shown in the last four years that they possess sufficient venom with which to sting Kerry – though they have yet to deliver a mortal blow.

The Kingdom again loom large on their horizon with the pair expected to meet in Killarney on June 7 but, whatever the result, recent history will see to it that the jury remains divided on the question of Cork’s All-Ireland ambitions.

The sides have met on 10 occasions in the past four seasons but Cork’s two Munster titles in that time have been devalued by their failure to defeat Kerry in three All-Ireland semi-finals and one decider. More importantly, those defeats have prevented the county from claiming the Sam Maguire for the first time since the never-to-be-forgotten dual All-Ireland-winning season of 1990.

“It is no secret that we have failed against Kerry a number of times in the latter stages of the championships, but Kerry have gone on to do very well a lot of those years, won All-Irelands out of it,” says Graham Canty.

“That is no excuse either. We have prepared very well. You get to the latter stages of the championship and it is good, but not the ultimate. Hopefully this year we could go that step further, but it is still May.

“We have to worry about the Munster Championship before anything else. The way the summer is now there is almost two championships and we will get one out of the way before we turn our attention to the other.”

Cork are many people’s outside fancies this summer. Put that to Canty and he responds with a sigh before pointing in the direction of last year’s Munster semi-final when they thieved Limerick of the win with a late goal.

He is entitled to his caution ahead of their opener against Waterford on May 24, but it is worth remembering that Conor Counihan approached that Limerick tie with little more than three months to his credit as an inter-county manager.

Games against Meath and Dublin had already been forfeited in Division Two of the league which left the Aghada man with just five competitive games to find his feet before that trip to the Gaelic Grounds.

Given all that, the side’s achievement in claiming a provincial title and taking Kerry to a replay in August deserves far more praise than it has actually received and it bodes well for the campaign to come.

“From the start of the year, from the start of January, we hit the ground running,” says Canty. “It is a big improvement, rather than starting in the middle of February for whatever reason, as was the case last year. We were kind of a bit disjointed.

“Before we knew it we were just trying to stay in Division Two. This year we have been able to set out our stall. We went out trying to win every league game. It didn’t matter what sort of a team we had out or what players came on.”

The benefits of that have been evident. Promotion to the top tier was ticked off the ‘to do’ list despite Counihan’s determination to juggle the chase for league points with an extensive auditioning process.

Cork finished the league with the best defence in the country despite their experimentation, but then that was no surprise after they had negotiated their quintet of games last spring without conceding a goal.

The big plus was the emergence of Ray Carey, the return of Michael Shields and the second coming of Noel O’Donovan as strong contenders for slots in the full-back line. That allowed Counihan to station Canty at centre-back where his footballing ability has been able to breath easier.

A bigger question mark exists over the team’s attacking capabilities. Last year’s run to the All-Ireland semi-final owed much to the team’s ability to poach goals – 10 in five games – which disguised their low points totals.

That was an affliction imported from the league. Larger totals have been posted in the months gone by against inferior opponents like Laois and Wexford but it is the expanded spread of contributions that has caught the eye.

Ten players contributed to the 1-16 scored against Wexford. Nine made their mark against Armagh and Kildare, and again in the final against Monaghan. Eight got in on the act in the rout of Laois in O’Moore Park.

Central to their enhanced scoring returns has been the composition of their half-forward line, which now features natural attackers as opposed to converted defenders. Paul Kerrigan’s pace has been unleashed on the senior stage, while Paul O’Flynn and Patrick Kelly are both poised to offer vital inputs in this sector as well. Inside they will need this summer either Donncha O’Connor or Daniel Goulding to make the next step to become what the Americans like to call their ‘go-to player’, while U21 captain Colm O’Neill will be a handy weapon to spring off the bench.

Last year Cork fell eight, six and eight points behind Kerry in their three meetings, winning the first, clawing back to draw the second but losing the third. They can ill afford such fallow periods in 2009.

“Any time you let teams get ahead of you like that you are putting yourself under pressure to turn them over,” admits Counihan. “Ultimately that cost us last year.”

Like every other defect with this Cork team, it is one which would seem to require a minor tweak rather than a major overhaul. They have the players, they have the experience and, as O’Connor observed, the physicality.

They have the hard luck stories to feed their desire too.

We will soon know if that is enough.