Bomber Liston, Tomás Ó Sé and kicking sleeping dogs in the midday sun?

Last year, I was out of the country for the Munster final.

My mother-in-law happened to be celebrating a big birthday so the whole family was booked on a flight to Lanzarote. Obviously I wasn’t part of the consultation process on the dates.

Now, if you cast you mind back a short 12 months ago, Kerry were heading to Páirc Ui Chaoimh under a dark cloud of trepidation and uncertainty. We were in full transition mode after being mauled by the Rebels in Tralee a short spell previous and only hung on by our finger nails to our Division One league status.

Constantly being reminded that we hadn’t won an Under 21 title in eons, and a minor in longer still. Kerry football was in a bad place, standing on a dark street corner not knowing which way to turn.

We were the ones without leader and rudder.

I felt a very similar sense of dread and unease as I tried to make myself as invisible as possible when I took my seat in a quiet corner of the renowned Cork bar, the Bodhrán, in the heart of Lanzarote’s old town.

Johnny Crowley is the proprietor, and one of the islands great entertainers and a staunch Cork man into the mix. Once the game threw in and Declan Sullivan began orchestrating matters, and the pattern of the game quickly began to unfold, the exuberant Johnny began to shrink with every score behind the bar counter as I began to grow taller and more visible out of my dark corner.

We mirrored the performance of our respective teams beautifully. The Bodhrán was green and gold for one night only.

Kerry had the element of surprise last year, they were the ones coming in under the radar. Completely written off. All the pressure was on Cork to perform and they choked.

I don’t think we’ll see that same anaemia from them this weekend.

Of course, the last time we had a Munster final in Killarney two years ago, Twitter nearly blew up early in the week with news of a ‘star’ player being left out of the starting team.

Accurate information from the Kerry camp was rare back then as training was taking place behind closed doors for the first time in Kerry’s history. People were scavenging for any little nuggets of team news to satisfy their curiosity.

By Tuesday evening, word started to filter out, and by Wednesday morning the dogs on the street in Tralee had it that Donaghy wasn’t starting, ‘Fitzy was ruthless’ - but it wasn’t out there in the national domain yet.

Cue the legend that is… Eoin Liston.

Bomber somehow became the unlikely, and the not-overly-cryptic instigator of the social media sandstorm that led Eamonn Fitzmaurice to announce his team earlier than he would have wanted to on the Wednesday to quell the speculation.

Bomber likes to try and pin some blame on me for that one in a ‘if I’m going down, I’m taking as many of ye with me as I can’ kind of attitude – but he knows; he got excited, smelled the scoop and couldn’t hold his water.

We still tease him about it and it remains a sore point, but as only he can he somehow manages to spin the story to have you believing that he did Kerry a great service that day. You walk away nearly thanking him for devotion to Twitter. Not sure Fitzmaurice ever did though.

This year, it was the turn of Tomás Ó Sé to become the unlikely breaker of the natural order of all things Kerry. The Ó Sé’s have long prided themselves on being some of the cutest of Kerry hoors - brokers for an age old west Kerry company that happily supplies a bush for every gap.

But Tomás changed tack last week, and while speaking to John Fogarty of this newspaper he dropped the boom on the Cork players and management, much to the dismay of the Kerry supporters. Why kick a sleeping dog seemed to be the thinking?

‘Leaderless and rudderless’ are two horrible words to associate with any group of sportsmen, but I can’t say I can disagree with his assertions. But Kerry have been there too, and not all that long ago. For all the undoubted talent they have had in their squad in the past 10-15 years, Cork have gradually become the one of biggest under-achievers in the modern era of Gaelic football.

But unlike Tomás, they still worry me.

In my eyes, Cork footballers are the ultimate sporting paradox. I was in Páirc Uí Rinn when they absolutely dismantled Kerry in the league this season. They were frightening that Sunday – cutting Kerry’s back line apart for fun and created so many goal chances, it was like an under 10’s game.

You start to think, they’ve cracked it. They know what they’re about now. But then I watched them in the league final against Dublin as they cowered and braced themselves for impact from too early on, almost pre-empting their plane going down.

They were like a completely different group. No fight. No plan.

And therein lies the issue with them. You just never know which Cork will show up. I don’t think the Cork players themselves, or management know which side will show itself; beauty or the beast. No consistency of performance.

The beauty for Cork next Sunday must have its genesis in a place of real hurt. They are being written off and ridiculed, from every corner of the country. If they have any pride in themselves and their jersey, they must let it all out on the green grass of Fitzgerald Stadium.

Pat Flanagan is a solid Waterford man, and is in his first year as physical trainer with Cork. I know him well from his time spent lecturing in Tralee and training Kerry. Pat is no spoofer, and is a huge believer in the idea of a team only being able to reach one or two real physical performance peaks in any given season.

I’m sure he will have circled next Sunday on his calendar a long way back as one of the Everests he had to get his players up to. It’s always a delicate balancing act, but I’d expect Pat to have his Cork boys bursting with energy and full of running for the 70+ minutes on Sunday.

Cork have the ball players, the athletes and the inside scorers. But the big question is can Brian Cuthbert get them to harness that energy and talent and play to some sort of coherent game plan.

We haven’t seen it yet. Cuthbert’s team is still a faceless one - they haven’t yet found their own identity. He chops and changes with personnel, and it doesn’t enable his players to develop that level of consistency they lack. Do they run it or kick it. Stick or bust. Who knows?

For all Cork’s flaws and inadequacies, I fear this game may be more uncomfortable for Kerry than people are anticipating. It’s all set up beautifully for Rebel ambush. If Cork harbour any real aspiration of performing later in the summer in the big house, they need to show their hand next Sunday.

Kerry may grind out the win, but Cork will surely want to put pride back in their jersey with a huge performance that should give them at least a puncher’s chance of causing the upset.