Harte predicts Kerry will still be September threat
Jack O’Connor’s side shipped heavy criticism for the manner of the defeat to their great rivals, with RTÉ analyst Martin Carney claiming Sunday was “the day the music died” for many of the team’s elder statesmen.
However, All-Ireland-winning manager Harte predicts the Kingdom will be back in Croke Park contending for All-Ireland honours in September. And he also downplayed the physicality of the clash which he described as “heat of the moment stuff”.
“Apparently, there was more aggressive play or perhaps aggressive body language in Cork’s 0-17 to 0-12 win over Kerry at Páirc Uí Chaoimh [than in Tyrone’s Ulster SFC clash with Armagh]. But there’s a serious rivalry there that goes back 100 years or more and I reckon it’s just heat of the moment stuff.
“That rivalry would be more intense than the Armagh-Tyrone one because our rivalry would be more recent in that nature.
“Cork and Kerry both know they’ll probably meet up again in the summer and that probably wouldn’t be as true of the teams in our province, Ulster. Everyone has accepted that we’re not at the level we were at eight to 10 years ago whereas those sides in Munster are.
“I think Cork and Kerry have to do a bit of shadow boxing before they show up at the real fight.”
And Harte also predicts that some of Kerry’s big name players will be stung into action following below par displays on Leeside.
“It didn’t quite happen for Kieran Donaghy and Paul Galvin on Sunday but I think that was just a one-off.
“And, in many ways, I think Kerry have benefited from the qualifying route in the past. They have at times looked like a team in decline and yet come back to win All-Irelands from those positions,” he told eircom sportshub
“It would be very dangerous and foolhardy to write Kerry off and I think the way they are being talked down will help them regroup.
“I wouldn’t be surprised to see them back in Croke Park later this summer and quite likely in September too.”
Meanwhile, Harte believes Ulster champions Donegal are favourites to defeat Derry in this evening’s Ulster championship clash in Ballybofey.
He reasoned: “They’ve already had their preliminary round clash with Cavan and while they had a slow start, they found their feet quickly and ultimately overran the Breffni County. They probably weren’t as defensive as they were last year and actually came up and got quite a few scores. I think they have moved on from last year and taken a step up.
“Derry — who I think might be in for a difficult day — had a poor league campaign and only avoided relegation based on other results. But they were missing a lot of key players then and manager John Brennan has gone on record as saying the league didn’t matter one iota to him. So it’s a gamble he’s taking in saying that because I personally think that the league is important. But it’s his right to say that and all the clubs he’s been with, he’s won championships so he is a bit of a knockout expert.
“League form points to Donegal winning this with a measure of comfort but I wouldn’t fully go with that. It’s unusual we’d go through Ulster without a shock so who knows.
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