First blood to Kingdom

DIDN’T see that coming. Few did. Jack O’Connor made a point after this win of saying the “experts didn’t give us much of a chance”. It wasn’t that. So much more was expected from Cork but it never materialised.

In front of a 40,892 crowd, last year’s All-Ireland champions did show their ability to recover, almost doing what they did in the Division One final against Dublin, when they had transformed a heavy deficit into a winning lead.

When John Miskella found himself facing Brendan Kealy three minutes from time, it appeared the chatter today would be of how Kerry blew a nine-point lead. But the defender’s shot cannoned off the upright and wide when a point would have drawn the game and made it 1-6 to Cork without reply in the second half.

With it, Kerry appeared to realise they had been let off the hook. Even with six minutes added by David Coldrick, they looked composed, soaking up Cork pressure and staging meticulous attacks for Eoin Brosnan to fist over and substitute James O’Donoghue to finish matters.

Cork had left themselves with too much work to do after being taken aback by Kerry’s incredible work-rate around the centre, although they played into the home team’s hands with so many short kick-outs which were coming back at Alan Quirke at a rate of knots.

Paudie Kissane and Jamie O’Sullivan were finding Darran O’Sullivan and Kieran O’Leary’s flight of foot too much for their liking while Graham Canty didn’t look comfortable on Declan O’Sullivan.

It was Dromid Pearses’ O’Sullivan who extended Kerry’s lead to nine just seconds into the second half and almost all of a sudden Kerry became a different team.

A lot of it had to do with Cork gaining a foothold and suffocating Kerry when they attempted to clear their lines.

But there wasn’t as much adventure in their football, as evidenced by the fact there was 36 minutes between that O’Sullivan point and Brosnan’s 72nd-minute effort.

It took Cork 30 minutes to reduce their arrears from nine to one, the first couple of points coming from Daniel Goulding’s left boot in the space of a minute.

But their comeback may have been accelerated had Coldrick, with the advice of his linesman Cormac Reilly, taken a harder line with Kieran Donaghy for an apparent stamp on Noel O’Leary.

The Cork defender was unfairly holding back Donaghy but the Kerryman’s reaction was rash and he could count himself lucky to only get a yellow card.

The attention O’Leary required after the incident was just one of several stoppages in the second half as Cork players — Ciarán Sheehan being the biggest worry — hobbled off and crafty Kerry made as much of the injuries they had in energy-sapping conditions.

Still, Kerry’s attempts to run down the clock weren’t enough to put off Cork’s revival. Kerrigan, who had a shot saved by Brendan Kealy just two minutes in, scored his first couple of points either side of another Goulding free.

The margin was cut to three when Donncha O’Connor, who hadn’t got much purchase from Marc Ó Sé, converted a penalty after the Kerry full-back was deemed to have touched the ball on the ground in denying Kerrigan yet again.

The move that led to the shot was purposeful, involving marauding moves from Aidan Walsh and the excellent Alan O’Connor. It was typical of the direct running that brought Cork back into the game.

An Ó Sé attempted hand-pass was intercepted and turned into an Alan O’Connor point before substitute Barry John Keane was overturned and the ball found its way over the bar from Kerrigan.

They had everything going with them before Miskella’s golden chance but will be asking why they have found themselves so far behind against genuine challengers to their throne in their two biggest games this year.

Their own kick-out strategy in the first half will have to be debated in-camp while Conor Counihan will ponder whether he got the right match-ups.

If Michael Shields was keeping tabs on Colm Cooper his fellow Cork defenders were struggling, namely Kissane and Canty on the two O’Sullivans in the forward line.

He scored one of Kerry’s unanswered four opening scores and left Kissane trailing in the 15th minute to hit the roof of the net after a trademark burst following a Kieran O’Leary lay-off.

He could have had a second a minute later when Donaghy supplied him but Alan Quirke was alert enough to push it out for a 45. Three Cork scores on the trot made it 1-5 to 0-5 but Kerry finished the half tremendously, Declan O’Sullivan kicking three of five points, although he and O’Leary and Bryan Sheehan, the other two point-finishers, could thank the pressure put on the likes of Kissane and Aidan Walsh in kicking Cork possession away.

Such was Kerry’s dominance, they had eight wides in the first half. All but an irrelevance now because of a not-so accurate strike at goal. July garlands to Kerry, then. But you get the feeling this is far from over.

Scorers for Kerry: Declan O’Sullivan 0-5; Darran O’Sullivan 1-0; C Cooper (1f), K Donaghy, B Sheehan 0-2 each; K O’Leary, D Walsh, E Brosnan, J O’Donoghue 0-1 each.

Scorers for Cork: D Goulding 0-5 (3f); D O’Connor 1-1 (1-0 pen); P Kerrigan 0-3; P Kelly, C Sheehan, A O’Connor 0-1 each.

Subs for Kerry: B J Keane for O’Leary (53); M Quirke for Sheehan (57); D Bohan for Enright (63); J O’Donoghue for Darran O’Sullivan (67).

Subs for Cork: E Cotter for J O’Sullivan (ht); F Goold for Sheehan (41); E Cadogan for Kissane (49); D O’Sullivan for Miskella (70); F Lynch for Kerrigan (71).

Referee: D Coldrick (Meath)