Kelly keen to avoid repeat of Croker woe against Dubs

CORK’S senior football championship rivalry with Dublin has been in cold storage for 15 years, but Patrick Kelly still has an experience of colliding with sky-blue forces in Croke Park to draw on.

Seven years ago, Cork attacker Kelly sampled inter-county fare on Jones Road for the first time when Cork went toe-to-toe with Dublin in an All-Ireland MFC semi-final. The game was a lopsided affair with Dublin runaway victors 1-18 to 1-9 and Kelly still recalls with clarity the significance of that occasion.

“I remember myself and Daniel Goulding roomed together the night before, and we barely slept at all. I was fairly nervous that day, playing in Croke Park for the first time. The match just went by in a flash and they were well over us. There’s a good few of the Cork lads from that team on the senior now though — myself, Goulding, Shielsy, Cadogan, Kerrigan, Alan (O’Connor), Fintan (Goold) and (John) Hayes.