Dara Ó Cinnéide: When will Cork achieve their potential?

One of the many pleasing aspects for Kerry supporters ahead of the replay against Cork last Saturday was that, win or lose, it offered their team another chance to iron out the kinks in their game against top quality opposition.

The replay, whether won or lost, would give the sideline gurus on both sides extra meat to chew on (context as Eamonn Fizmaurice likes to call it) as they went about improving their performances further down the line.

We now know Kerry won and Cork lost, but why are some people giving Kildare a chance in this evening’s Round 4A qualifier game? If it was Kerry who lost that game in Killarney, would anybody give the Lillywhites even a fighting chance of beating them? Given there was so little to separate the Munster giants over the course of 150 minutes of football this month, why at the end of the month are victor and vanquished being judged so differently? What has changed in a week? For the second time in a week, Cork will get to play a game that will be won and lost in the few inches between their players’ ears as much as it might be out on the pitch.