Calm Kerrigan keeping Cork steady
Cork were rocked from the off by the ferocity of Dublin’s challenge and Bernard Brogan’s early goal. They spent the rest of the game trying to reel Dublin in and for spells it looked that they were chasing a lost cause.In the build-up, the Cork camp had discussed how to cope with facing the Dubs at Croke Park. Daniel Goulding and Donncha O’Connor practised frees while listening to iPods carrying recordings of match day crowds. They played A v B training matches in Páirc Ui Chaoimh with similar sounds blaring over the loudspeakers. Yet the game entered the final quarter with Dublin in the ascendancy and Cork on the ropes.
Kerrigan considered how they could turn the match around. He thought back to early February just after the team holiday to Thailand and the fight they displayed to defeat Monaghan in Scotstown. He looked at the Dublin players and figured they would tire at some stage after working furiously for an hour. And he recalled his first Munster final as a Cork senior footballer in 2008 against Kerry when a ten-points interval deficit morphed into a five-point victory.
