Plenty of advantages for Kerry after Clare examination, warns O'Dwyer

Cork sit one title behind Kerry - 29 to 28 - in the Munster U20 roll of honour ahead of Monday's decider.

RIVALRY RENEWED: Cork under-20 football manager Bobbie O'Dwyer. Pic; Eddie O'Hare

Looking at the results come through from last week’s Munster U20 football semi-finals and knowing that the decider would be staged in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the obvious conclusion to make was that Cork were in the box seat.

Bobbie O’Dwyer’s charges cruised to a 14-point victory over Limerick. The Treaty were held to just six points over the hour and held scoreless from play altogether.

There was no such cruising in Tralee. A defensively naive Kerry were taken for four goals and were almost taken out altogether but for a last-ditch block on Conor Meaney’s match-winning point attempt deep in second-half injury-time.

To extra-time, Tomás Ó Sé’s charges succeeded in getting the job done, but not before another goal had been leaked.

So, as we remarked at the outset, Cork are in the box seat. Or as Tomás Ó Sé remarked after a nervy Kerry managerial debut, Cork will “relish” the Kingdom coming across the decider.

But give it a bit more thought and a different conclusion is arrived at.

Cork received no examination last Monday, no health check. Cork knew no more about themselves at the final whistle than they did at the throw-in.

Kerry, by contrast, had every flaw and imperfection highlighted to the nth degree.

Whatever we can expect from Ó Sé’s youngsters in Páirc Uí Chaoimh this evening, we can take it as read that they’ll be more defensively compact and tuned in than was the case this day last week.

“I would always say that in football, or in any sport for that matter, you learn more from defeat. 

"Now, I am not saying Kerry were beaten, they won obviously. But when you are put to the test, you really find out where your challenges are,” said Cork manager Bobbie O’Dwyer of how Kerry’s scare would stand to them in the long run.

“Yes, Kerry will have seen the areas they need to work on. But all we can manage is what we did the last day, how we put our structures in place, how our defensive structure was, how our transition was coming forward, and how our attacking structure was.

“But yeah, Kerry have a lot of advantages coming into Monday after their game the last day.” 

Cork sit one title behind Kerry - 29 to 28 - in the Munster U20 roll of honour. A win this evening does more than even matters up or put a piece of tin in the cabinet, it provides an extra championship game in a competition that is not flush with them.

Kerry and Cork opened their championship campaign last Monday. For the vanquished on Monday evening, it will have run for no more than a week. Not much room for development in that.

“If you talk to any guy managing or coaching an U20 set-up, it’s such a short championship and that is one of the downsides,” O’Dwyer continued.

“The more games we get in, the better. For whatever team loses on Monday, that’s a two-game season gone out the window and most of those lads won’t play inter-county football again for another 12 months, be that at U20 if they’re underage again or if they go into a senior development squad.

“The competition needs tweaking if it is to be used in a developmental role to get guys ready for senior because it is quite a short window.”

Cork: C Dungan (Carrigaline); D Twomey (Ballinascarthy), J O'Driscoll (Valley Rovers), D Murray (Glanmire); T O'Mahony (Castlehaven), T Walsh (Kanturk), S Brady (Ballygarvan); E Nash (Douglas), S Dore (Ballincollig); O Corcoran (St Mary's), L O'Connell (Ballincollig), R O'Sullivan (Newcestown); P O'Rourke (Carbery Rangers), H O'Connor (Newmarket), T Cunningham (Kilshannig). 

Subs: M O'Connell (St Michael's), M Quirke (Ballinora), F Crowley (St Finbarr's), C Kenneally (Clonakilty), E de Burca (St Michael's), P O'Driscoll (Gabriel Rangers), N Kelly (Newcestown), M McSweeney (Knocknagree), R Corkery (Nemo Rangers).

Kerry: K Mackessy (Finuge); C O’Donoghue (St Mary's), A Moynihan (Rathmore), J Nagle (Austin Stacks); K O Sullivan (Glenflesk), A Heinrich (Austin Stacks), P O'Leary (Gneeveguilla); K Burke (Milltown/Castlemaine), C O’Connell (Castlegregory); T O’Donnell (Castlegregory), C McMahon (Dr Crokes), K Evans (Keel); J Clifford (St Michael's Foilmore), W Shine (Killarney Legion), A O Shea (Listry).

Subs: M Tansley (Austin Stacks), D O’Callaghan (Kilcummin), C Lynch (Glenflesk), L Crowley (Glenflesk), A Segal (Ballyduff), C Foley (Kilcummin), R Stack (Beale), M Casey (Templenoe), D Roche (Glenflesk).