Fifty minutes of maybe-things-aren't-that-bad from Cork. So what comes next?
SLIPPING: Cork's Kevin Flahive pressures David Clifford of Kerry.
IT took the greatest part of fifty minutes on Saturday evening for the sediment to settle at Páirc Ui Rinn and for Jack O’Connor’s Kerry to wrestle the resistance out of Cork and their causes. It wasn’t a provincial semi-final where the full might of Kerry’s offensive hardware was required, but there was enough spunk from their hosts to make it a productive evening for each of the stakeholders.
It was in the 49th minute when Cathail O’Mahony made the Munster SFC semi-final a one-point game and though the visitors and favourites established some order with judicious changes in the final quarter, there was as much for Cork and their management to take into the qualifiers as there was for Kerry to take back through Baile Bhuirne and Ballydesmond.
The issue now is what comes next from Cork. The bright lights of tv and Kerry provided a captive backdrop to shape 70-odd minutes on prime time. A hum-drum qualifier against moderate opposition is the sort of next step that frequently brings out the dishevelled worst in Cork football. Just as no one should judge the work of Keith Ricken, John Cleary et al on the basis of a 12-point beating by the All-Ireland favourites, neither should one assume the only way now is up. Cork football is way more frustrating than that. Progress will be determined by how deep they go into the second-chance saloon.
Their set-up at Pairc Ui Rinn might have been specifically designed to frustrate Kerry, but it suggested a basic plan to work with and work from. The frequency with which Cork players were falling to the ground on Saturday suggests they may have a few to nurse back to fitness before the next game (it might also have been a device to break up the play, mind you), but the biggest concern is the knee injury suffered late on by Kevin Flahive, who was resolute and admirable in his efforts to knock David Clifford off his stride. He left on crutches and the Cork management could do with a positive diagnosis on that Monday scan. Noteworthy too that Cork lost Micheal A. Martin to a groin problem, and his replacement Dylan Foley, had never played a championship minute between the sticks prior to Páirc Ui Rinn. He didn’t look out of place.
Sean Powter at sweeper looks to the manor born – he needs to be facing the play and is too restricted in today’s claustrophobic formations as a centre forward - and they have a formidable triangle of Maguires, Rory and Ian, plus Colm O’Callaghan to ward off intruders. It’s a decent base to progress from if they keep them healthy and ready for the next outing. Remove some of those figureheads, though, and the Cork squad looks as shallow as it does callow.
Can we read too much into Saturday night’s work for Kerry? A nervous sloppiness – perhaps rustiness – was evident in their early handling, tackling and decision-making, which encouraged Cork and their support in an attendance of 10,743.
Jason Foley and Tom O’Sullivan started quite awkwardly. Up front, Tony Brosnan and David Clifford were held and Kerry created one real goal chance, not that their total of twenty-three points attaches much importance to that. But they did struggle to plot a route through or around Cork’s defensive shield for long stretches, a low block led intelligently by Powter, Cooper and Flahive.
This is a repeating frustration with Kerry. The success at Pairc Ui Chaoimh in 2020 offered material evidence that if a side pulls at Kerry’s pigtails long enough to disrupt the supply chains, there’s a chance they can be knocked out of kilter. This time though, there was no biblical storm to further upscuttle the formbook and once David Moran added midfield impetus and wily experience to their cause, they slowly suffocated the life out of John Cleary’s side.
Jack O’Connor sensed Kerry were rusty after five weeks without a game (not even a challenge), and there’s merit in that reasoning. What it also highlights again is the limited examination they will face this side of the All-Ireland knockout series. But once O’Connor creases out those worries and bits of frustration, he will be pleased with the championship challenge his side faced, if not entirely happy with how they dealt with it.
They enjoyed a bountiful return from their replacements, the scoring of Paul Geaney and Micheal Burns allied to the ball-winning ability of Moran. Before their introduction – and while the game was truly competitive - 32-year-old Stephen O’Brien was Kerry’s most influential player, backed up on his left flank by wing back Gavin White and midfielder Diarmuid O’Connor.
O’Brien has been lifting in training and made short work of the idea he is the Kerry forward under the most pressure when everyone is available. “He’s turned back the years,” his manager said afterwards. Dara Moynihan missed the game with a quad injury while neither Jack Savage or Killian Spillane got minutes.
Geaney, Moran, Paul Murphy and Burns arrived with points to prove and with the benefit of some generous refereeing decisions by Kildare’s Brendan Cawley, Kerry put down the boot for home in the last twenty. If he is guilty of carrying the ball into the tackle too readily, no-one can quibble with Gavin White’s energy and fearlessness. With Jack McCaffrey gone, he is the game’s most dynamic wing-back.
Only sub Eoghan McSweeney snapped Cork’s scoreless streak in the final quarter. Compared to the impact of the Kerry bench, Cork’s was negligible, but there is time yet for the likes of Damien Gore, Brian Hartnett, Mark Cronin and Brian Hayes to stake a claim.
That everyone poured out afterwards onto the Boreenmanna Road quietly content said a lot. There was palpable anxiety in Cork that they might have been embarrassed at Pairc Ui Rinn Saturday – in front of Roy Keane too, a man with his share of red-faced experiences this season.
With obliteration avoided, something more complex and profound re-emerges - to create something defined, sustainable and identifiable for Cork football. That grand five-year plan to recalibrate Cork football is already halfway through its term without any above-the-line enhancements. Plucky dozen-point defeats to the League champions won’t carry you far.
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