Let’s examine the reason players aren’t kicking the football

Everywhere I turn recently, somebody somewhere is prescribing the antidote for the terminal ills of gaelic football. But I’m not so sure the sickness is as widespread and as life-threatening as has been suggested, writes Michael Quirke.

Surely anybody watching Cork’s performance against Kerry on Sunday would be hard pressed to find anything negative to say about the game, apart from Kerry’s disintegration in the second half. The first 35 minutes had it all from both teams. Long kicking, high fielding, hard tackling and plenty of skelping. This game mattered, but particularly to Cork. They were demoralised in the Munster final on home soil last year with silverware up for grabs, and those scars stay with you until such time as you get to exact some measure of revenge. It was rip-roaring stuff from the Rebels that saw Kerry clinging on by their finger nails until the break. After that, the loss of Anthony Maher - who was turning into the game’s dominant player - was a fatal blow and Kerry were unable to stay with the energy and dynamism that Cork were displaying.

Scary stuff from a Kerry point of view, but we’ve been here before. It is only March.