More flexible Kerry outfit can sidestep Cork’s strength
When aren’t Kerry and Cork games in Munster?
But the portents are more obvious this year. Take the league game, for one. What went on off the ball towards the end of the game was missed by referee Maurice Deegan. Had he witnessed what the crowd saw, both sides wouldn’t have finished with their full complement.
Take Cork’s Division 1 final win over Mayo as another example. Any attempt by Mayo to muscle it with them was dismissed with fervency. When Noel O’Leary manhandled Donal Vaughan it was an answer to what the player had done earlier to Eoin Cadogan.
Cork will dominate plenty of teams with their power — it’s how they won the 2010 All-Ireland — but they are a better team than that.
Their players are more sophisticated footballers too but are they given enough leash to bite? In the second-half of last year’s Munster final, Cork ate into Kerry’s lead and made hay between the enormous crevasses between their opponents’ half-back and full-back lines.
With Alan O’Connor ruling the roost, the Kerry half-backs pushed forward to help out their pressurisedmidfield. The same problem repeated itself later in the year against Mayo, as Marc Ó Sé reveals elsewhere in these pages today. Kerry’s defence simply have to retain their shape if there are to silence what is by its nature a rigid if impressive Cork forward line.
The match-ups, as ever, will be fascinating. Marc Ó Sé will be expected to take up Donncha O’Connor yet again. Killian Young has shadowed Patrick Kelly before but may be asked to marshal Colm O’Neill now Tom O’Sullivan is retired.
Named at midfield, Aidan Walsh will surely see some time at full-forward where Aidan O’Mahony will be tasked with spoiling him as he did in the league. Tomás Ó Sé won’t be for moving from his right-wing berth where Kelly has been named as his marker. Like Darran O’Sullivan, Paul Kerrigan’s speed is more suited to a central area although Eoin Brosnan, more used to duelling with Pearse O’Neill, should have the legs to go with him for most of the 70 minutes.
The defending team is supposed to dictate the match-ups but Jack O’Connor pulled something of a coup last July when he waited for the Cork defence to settle itself before shifting Declan O’Sullivan on Graham Canty at full-back.
It’s more likely Canty will be on one of the wings tomorrow, where he performed well in the league but that opens the prospect of O’Connor pushing one of his speedier operators on him.
Cadogan’s shut-out on Conor Mortimer suggests Michael Shields may be freed from Colm Cooper to try and tie down Kieran Donaghy or Declan O’Sullivan.
A Paul Galvin-Noel O’Leary duel looks too explosive and Galvin must realise just how important his playmaking and incisive foot-passing not to mention ball-winning is to the team. Declan O’Sullivan was immense at full-forward in the league game at the same venue in April and it’s his and Donaghy’s flexibility that open up the options for Kerry in attack.
Darran O’Sullivan can also operate on both lines but Kerry will be best served by mismatching him with a slower Cork half-back.
The problem with Kerry against Tipperary was that they looked so predictable. Ball goes into Cooper, Cooper offloads to the runner.
If that runner, be it O’Leary on the loop or Darran O’Sullivan at full pelt, is checked, so too is Kerry’s ability to break their cover.
Cork have only conceded two goals this year and Kerry haven’t beaten their neighbours without a goal in the Munster SFC since 2004.
Forget the Tipperary game — this is what they had on their mind. Cork’s bench is stronger so anticipate Kerry to get at them early, especially given their habits of slow starts in these games.
Ultimately, it’s the visitors who are the more flexible outfit. That adaptability can sidestep Cork’s strength by the bare minimum.
Verdict: Kerry
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