We’ve seen Dr Jekyll. Can Cork conceal Mr Hyde?

In the eight minutes and 56 seconds he spoke to the written press after yesterday’s Munster football final, Brian Cuthbert advised on five occasions how nobody of a football persuasion in Cork should be high-fiving their way into work this morning.

If he wasn’t bidding to convince the anaemic following in his own county that the Rebel footballers are a project with high ambition worth sticking with, he could have been on the coach ride home talking to his own players.

Yesterday’s thoroughly engaging Munster football final was the one many Cork followers had given up trying to find.

And perhaps even some in the squad privately felt beyond them.

It was Dr Jekyll. But how far behind is Mr Hyde? Far from dispelling the suspicion that surround the Cork footballers, an abject defeat in the replay on Saturday week, again in Killarney, will only frank it.

Cuthbert’s comments spoke to an infuriating consistency that can only be eradicated by finishing the job in 12 days’ time and progressing directly to an All-Ireland quarter-final. The loser, remember, on July 18 will go straight into a Round 4 qualifier the following week and, if successful, turn straight into Croke Park on the first weekend of August.

On top of convincing the country that this near thing was more than a reflex reaction to being repeatedly kicked by friend and foe, there are clearly other, more practical, reasons for Cuthbert’s Cork to kick on from yesterday’s 3-12 to 2-15 draw.

Will they? Conventional wisdom will tell us the likes of Kerry will find their game a lot quicker with such a thorough examination under their belts, but what sort of mindset do Cork take into the replay — the one away from the microphones and dictaphones? Will they bring the sort of attitude exemplified by Michael Shields, who pinned Paul Geaney to the ground away from the play as Kerry searched frantically for an injury-time equaliser — the Cork man prepared to do anything to ensure his team scrambled over the line? Or will some players retreat into their shells, fearful that a glorious opportunity to snap a 20-year winless streak in Fitzgerald Stadium was snatched away from them by an outrageous long-range equaliser from Fionn Fitzgerald in the 73rd minute?

“He does that all the time in training,” said Eamonn Fitzmaurice.

Cork had a pair of opportunities after Barry O’Driscoll had put them in front with six minutes left to put two scores between the teams, but Cuthbert was more irked with how Cork forfeited their 50th minute lead of 2-11 to 1-11 — a Kerry penalty awarded for an alleged foul by Mark Collins on James O’Donoghue.

In real time, the best case a Kerry man could come up with would be of the ‘I’ve seen them given’ variety. Irrespective, O’Donoghue didn’t need an embossed envelope to take advantage of the invitation.

The final 20 minutes was thoroughly engaging because, for the first time, no side held the whip hand. You score, we score. Eamonn Fitzmaurice emptied his bench of glittering gold, but none of it sorted the difficulty Kerry had when Cork ran at their midriff. The Kerry manager said afterwards he trusted his inside defenders enough to go two-v-two against Brian Hurley and Colm O’Neill, but even pausing to laud an epic display of defending from Marc Ó Sé, one cannot ignore the scoreline. 3-12 is a lot to be conceding. Ó Sé and Shane Enright were so busy stomping out fires, they hadn’t the wherewithal to ask who was tracking the Cork runners like Mark Collins, Donncha O’Connor and, most of all, Barry O’Driscoll.

Credit the Cork management for redeploying the Nemo attacker as a wing back. Such was the black humour in Cork last week that some wag wondered was it the skipper moving around the deck chairs on the Titanic, a punchline Eamonn Fitzmaurice isn’t laughing at. O’Driscoll sallied through for the lead goal, but it was emblematic of the sort of bother Cork’s direct running caused the All-Ireland champions throughout the piece. Conor Dorman only got 13 minutes of action, but he is better than most at finding the opposition weak spots running from deep. Ditto Jamie O’Sullivan. It might give Cuthbert’s selection team some food for thought this week and next.

Fitzmaurice had barely taken his seat in the post-match inquisition before admitting his team had got out of jail. Whether his raft of changes, judgment calls as he labelled them, worked is a moot point. While Paul Geaney looked lively, you couldn’t say Colm Cooper, Anthony Maher or Darran O’Sullivan materially reshaped the game when they came on. Jack Sherwood looked lively but dropped a key possession at midfield. With it, Kerry’s chance looked to have evaporated, and the Kerry management team has enough about it to recognise that Fitzgerald’s equaliser has done nothing but give them the guts of two weeks to iron out inconsistencies that have been barely suppressed all season. Some of their problems yesterday were explainable — James O’Donoghue looked ring-rusty, as did Cooper, while David Moran’s black card came at a time when he was the game’s dominant midfielder.

But — and a hat tip here to Pat Flanagan, their fitness coach — Cork were robust and powerful into the wind in the last quarter when the winning post appeared on the horizon.

Donncha O’Connor outpaced the Kerry cover to latch onto another Barry O’Driscoll wing raid for the 38th minute goal that wiped out the Kingdom’s 1-8 to 1-4 advantage. The goal was the catalyst for a surge of Cork dominance, four points on the trot turning a four-point deficit into a three-point advantage. Hence one can understand Cuthbert’s fury at the 53rd minute Kerry penalty award.

The final, played out in front of 35,651 customers, could be neatly compartmentalised into five spells of dominance — three to Cork — before that last round. Five goals and three black cards later, Kerry were running out of ideas late in the day. They were getting little direct profit out of Eoin Cadogan versus Kieran Donaghy, but each time possession spilled from their rooftop combats, the Kingdom seemed to pick up the pieces. Late in the day, the crumbs seemed to have provided Kerry with a winning goal, but Paul Geaney’s effort was nudged wide of the upright by a sprawling Ken O’Halloran.

When O’Donoghue missed the 45, Cork looked home. Little wonder their manager was shaking his head leaving the ground.

“I wasn’t coming down thinking we weren’t going to win, thinking we didn’t have a chance. At the same time, one swallow doesn’t make a summer. We need to be more consistent and we need to come back and win.

“Cork aren’t just happy to come to places and perform. Cork want to win things. Over the years we’ve won seven All-Irelands, lots of people say that’s not enough, but we’re not going out of the dressing-room clapping ourselves on the back saying we’ve performed.

“That’s a basic requirement of coming here.” Added the Cork manager: “You judge everyone day-by-day and today, this Cork team performed.” And the next day?