Brian Cuthbert and his team have plenty to improve on since the Munster final hammering

Kickouts: While the stats in the Munster final reveal Cork won 20 of their own kickouts to Kerry’s 13, the full set of numbers over 70 minutes do not reflect Kerry’s dominance, nor the apparent lack of alternative strategies that Cork seemed to possess on the day.

Cork won eight of their first 10 kickouts and also their last eight when the game was gone. While the game was in the melting pot, Cork lost 11 out of 15. Despite getting cleaned out in this key period of the game, Cork’s kickout never really varied — it was kicked primarily 55 to 70 metres with a range of about 10m either side of the centre. The responsibility here does not lie with just goalkeeper and midfield. There was in fact very few clean catches, with Goold and Walsh competing well in the air. Breaking ball was more relevant. Cork’s wing back line cannot be caught with their heels planted to the ground while the opposition half-forwards time their runs to slip past them into the breaking ball area at pace. They need to shadow these runs and be in a position to dominate their men physically when the ball does break.

The addition of wing forward Colm O’Driscoll to the team will help as he is strong on breaking ball. Cork may consider deploying him goal side for breaks on their own kickouts.