Where was that crucial Cork spark?

SICK as a parrot. It may not be the poetic intro you’d expect from such an auspicious occasion, but it’s as good as any if you’re a Cork man digesting yesterday’s difficult-to-swallow defeat to Kerry.

The four points loss to the old enemy never threatened to become a hammering, but the sobering fact is that, even in touch, I never really sensed Conor Counihan’s men were capable of pulling the All-Ireland final out of the fire. I’m cobbling together thoughts without the distance of an overnight’s reflection, but there didn’t seem to be the same fire in the belly for Cork. For a side which should have been shaking the doors to get out onto the field, which had the platform of a dream start to the game, they never ignited.

Nowhere was this more evident than in the half forward line. Cork needed Pearse O’Neill to be on a lot of ball, but in truth he was rarely involved. Kudos to Jack O’Connor and Mike McCarthy for that, but look at the wing forwards for Cork, Paul Kerrigan and Patrick Kelly. They began promisingly, but as I suggested on these pages at the weekend, people don’t realise how massive an occasion an All-Ireland final is.