Dara Ó Cinnéide: Will Cork or Kerry have learned life’s lessons?
As always sifting the entrails of a drawn game to decipher what might happen next can be useful, but it can be misleading too.
This much we do know. Cork will come west over the border as a different team this evening.
Less nervous. Just as honest. Even more dangerous.
The Kingdom too, have learned enough for us to know that we will witness a different type of Kerry animal emerge into the colosseum this evening. The colosseum itself should be different this time around as well.
Despite all the fanfare, the pageantry and the obvious sense of occasion, the drawn game featured the most muted atmosphere I’ve ever experienced in the Michael O’Connor terrace in Killarney for a pre-match parade.
Maybe it was just where I was standing, or perhaps it was the scrutiny and mockery that Cork were subjected to in the build-up that had everyone so subdued. But I got no sense of nervous energy from the Kerry supporters and even the usually vocal Cork brigade appeared diffident as if they were waiting for their team to give them something to shout about before backing them fully.
Three minutes into the second half, Donncha O’Connor’s goal gave the Cork supporters the belief their players displayed all day. Six minutes later, with David Moran black carded, as Patrick Kelly began to influence the game like no other and Colm O’Neill kicked an outrageous score to put Cork a point ahead, the Kerry followers also finally found their nervous energy.
Eamonn Fitzmaurice spoke earlier in the week about not having the best of days on the sideline a fortnight ago. For all the talk of Alan O’Connor’s performance in the drawn game and of how he imposed himself at midfield without prompting any remedy from Kerry, I doubt Fitzmaurice’s admission was a specific reference to the presence and guile of the Cork midfielder. His comments, I would imagine, stem mainly from the Kerry management’s failure to adapt to roles played in Cork’s revival by Patrick Kelly and Mark Collins.
Kelly’s movement back and forth along the 50-yard line and the employment of Collins as a sweeper suited Cork as both players are smart runners, who are composed in possession and can kick accurately off either side when the heat comes on.
This ensured that Cork could move the ball upfield that bit faster than they normally would.
On the field, Kerry didn’t apply enough pressure to both of these key players, while off the field nothing was done to adapt to the new reality.
Much was made of how Colm Cooper and Peter Crowley allowed Michael Shields run unchallenged to create Barry O’Driscoll’s goal but by that stage, following Anthony Maher’s fisted point, Kerry were two points up. It was Collins who caught the kick-out. It was Kelly who carried the ball into the heart of the Kerry defence. And it was Collins who was again given the time and space to feed Shields whose run set up O’Driscoll for the goal.
This was after Cork had spent over a minute in possession of the ball without provoking any genuine sense of urgency from Kerry.
Whatever way Cork line out this evening, I expect Kerry to give both Collins and Kelly the respect players of their calibre deserve. If Collins handles the ball 33 times today, as he did a fortnight ago, then we’ll know Kerry have failed to adapt yet again.
The amount of goals Kerry had been conceding was the subject of plenty debate prior to the drawn Munster final, and should, therefore, not have been the issue it became a fortnight ago. The fact that Kerry conceded 11 goals in eight competitive games before conceding a further three against Cork makes a compelling case for a change of approach at the back. The Rathmore duo of Aidan O’Mahony and Paul Murphy have a very clear mandate.
What have Cork taken from the drawn game? There is an assumption that many of their players can’t play much better than they did the last day. I’d beg to differ.
Eoin Cadogan for starters is rightly getting huge credit for keeping Kieran Donaghy under wraps but what about the goal and two points, the black card and the Paul Geaney goal chance that all came about from balls broken from Donaghy?
Cadogan is reaping the benefits of a league campaign spent contesting high ball at midfield but surely some of his colleagues can do better when the Douglas man breaks the ball from Donaghy again this evening?
And what of that final quarter when Cork’s phenomenal workrate dropped ever so slightly, thus encouraging Kerry and a previously under-pressure Brendan Kealy, to pop a few short unchallenged kick-outs?
Hope will also be nourished by the period after half-time when their concentration levels were at a peak and they cracked Kealy on a few occasions. If they can maintain their workrate for longer periods, if they can increase the pace of their runs through Kerry’s high defensive line and if they can improve the quality of ball to the inside line, they will surely enjoy plenty of rewards.
I got to see Asif Kapadia’s much talked about film on Amy Winehouse during the week. At the tail end of the documentary, the legendary Tony Bennett speaks warmly of his singing partner who was gone far too young and too soon. “Life teaches you how to live it, if you’re lucky enough to live that long,” said Bennett with characteristic wit and wisdom.
The same is true of this football match. Both Kerry and Cork will hope to have their faults of a fortnight ago corrected. Because of the short time available, there will be no reinventing of the wheel, just a few surprises designed to keep each other on the back-foot for a while.
It was only at the end of the drawn game, as they stood to lose everything, that I sensed Kerry begin to understand the game and its basic requirements. They had been extremely lucky to live long enough to learn a few valuable life lessons. The game had eventually taught them how they need to be play it — with urgency and conviction.
Finally, as they realised what might be lost, Kerry understood what was needed to stay alive.
We don’t know yet if the drawn game of two weeks ago represents a turning point in Kerry’s or in Cork’s season.
But this much we do know: Kerry won’t be as lame again and Cork are in a better place.
It may take extra time to prove it, but I believe that Kerry are still the team to beat.
If Mayo pull off the five in row, as anticipated, in tomorrow’s Connacht final, the scale of their achievement should not be underestimated. Since their reemergence as a serious championship team four years ago under James Horan, their utter dominance has deflated all challengers in the province and given rival managers like Galway’s Kevin Walsh a template to aspire to.
They won’t have it all their own way against a Sligo team who were the top scorers in all four divisions of this year’s Allianz Football League and who pulled off one of the few genuine surprises in this year’s championship when beating Roscommon the last time out. The major concern for Sligo is that in order to take down a big team like Mayo, they will probably have to score a goal or two and apart from a converted Adrian Marren penalty and a half chance for David Kelly, they never really engineered goal threats in the semi-final win. If Mayo come to Hyde Park fully tuned in and decide to put the squeeze on Aidan Devaney, who got away with a good few short kick-outs against Roscommon, they should prevail.
What Donegal and, to a lesser extent, Monaghan have achieved in consistently making and winning the past few Ulster finals should also be acknowledged. There is a sense this is a cusp game for this bunch of Monaghan footballers who probably didn’t get the recognition they deserved in beating Donegal two years because of Donegal’s and their own subsequent collapse in Croke Park.
We got a clear indication from Malachy O’ Rourke’s comments during the week and from the awful league match earlier this spring that this could be another affair where it could be well into the second half before either team really goes hard down the final stretch. Monaghan haven’t had to truly extend themselves since their thrilling league semi-final against Dublin in April and if, as reported, their training sessions have become a crowded battleground, they should be well up for the Donegal challenge. It wouldn’t surprise me if they denied Donegal the more direct route to Croke Park.
