Tony Leen: Kerry still haven’t found what they’re looking for

PENALTY OR NO: Cork’s Sean Powter fouls Paul Geaney to concede the game's decisive moment. Cork protested strongly afterwards about the decision by referee David Gough. 

IN isolation and in the limited context of the two important Championship points, Kerry will be grateful for their first competitive victory outside the county this year. But if managers are consistent on the primacy of performance at this level, then Jack O’Connor and his management team can’t be happy. Kerry remain well off it.

With the team bus waiting outside Pairc Ui Chaoimh, O’Connor’s time reflecting with the print media after Saturday’s edgy two-point win over Cork was brief and can be parcelled thus: For this day, it was good enough.

The issue is that tomorrow and the next day comes faster now in the reformatted championship. It isn’t so much the issues themselves facing the All-Ireland champions – it’s the dearth of available solutions that furrows Kingdom brows.

The obvious one, though no less relevant for that, is David Clifford and his wellbeing. The score was 0-10 to 0-9 after 45 minutes when he converted the penalty that put Kerry four points ahead. The next Kerry score in the 49th minute came from a Clifford free he was fouled for. He made a simple step move onto his left side on 53 minutes that gave him enough separation to score the next point. Kerry then went 14 minutes, each one less convincing, before, yes, David Clifford cut through the inside left channel to drill another point and restore a 1-13 to 0-13 lead. Tom O’Sullivan pointed in the 73rd minute, the first non-David Clifford scorer for the All-Ireland champions since the 39th minute. He was responsible for 1-3 of Kerry’s last 1-4. Not since the days of Maurice Fitzgerald has Kerry been as reliant on a player to pull them out of the weeds. 

Cork did their level best, like others, and devised a strategy to double-team this phenomenon. His first point underlined such futility. Paul Geaney delivered an angled ball of such precision that it could be measured with a protractor. Sean Powter and Daniel O’Mahony were telephone-box close but once Clifford seized possession, the die was cast. He finished with 1-5 and he wasn't even brilliant by his own absurd levels.

Afterwards, John Cleary, the Cork manager, noted Kerry’s poise and patience in the last quarter as the mark of a top team and in fairness, the Kingdom’s conversion rate throughout was high. There were no silly wides. But any suggestion of poise is counterfeit. Kerry felt vulnerable. Simple 20m kick passes to open players were eschewed for the safer option, with no one wanting to make the half-mistake or offer the turnover that could send Kerry down a championship cul-de-sac. Sean O’Shea, after a dynamic first half of four points, drifted out of the game and none of the four wing forwards could be happy with their contribution, even though O’Connor confirmed Adrian Spillane’s half-time withdrawal was because of a dead leg.

Paul Geaney had a lively first half and Paudie Clifford scored two points as the visitors took a 0-9 to 0-5 lead into the interval. But many, if not most, Kerry supporters in the crowd of 14,081, were willing possession into the reassuring hands of Clifford as the ghosts of Pairc Ui Chaoimh pasts loomed larger in the second period. 

Afterwards, Paul Murphy spoke of the ‘scar tissue’ Kerry were carrying from their last championship visit to the ground in the monsoon of 2020, but there’s little doubt that the defeat to Mayo, and the nature of it, a fortnight ago, has destabilised the groups’ belief as well. Stephen O’Brien brought a sense of smart energy to the final quarter, but as the Cork crowd smelt blood, the pungent whiff of another late haymaker grew. Cork even tried to recreate the Mark Keane moment late on. This time, Shane Ryan wasn't going to stay rooted to his line. 

No longer is there a cavalry-in-waiting off the bench. The retirement of David Moran, allied to the injuries to Joe O’Connor, Stefan Okunbor, Briain O Beaglaoich and Killian Spillane has left Kerry’s change-up options without any turbo switch. Rookies Chris O’Donoghue and Sean O’Brien, both defenders, were added to the bench for Saturday’s game.

LOOSE BALL: Cork’s Maurice Shanley and Paudie Clifford of Kerry chase possession. 

Asked about the edginess and longing for the finish line, O’Connor drew down a reminder of how important the win was in fundamental terms.

“You have to understand that this was a big game for the Kerry players,” he said. “With a lot on the line. Yes, I’d agree we turned over a few balls and took balls into contact and stuff.

“But after the Mayo performance, I thought there was huge pressure on our fellas to perform today. And it didn't matter how we got over the line. We just needed to get over the line and get those two points. If there was a bit of edginess, it's understandable enough.” 

That’s reasonable. There is time yet and the possibility that Kerry could catch fire. For the nostalgic, the campaign of 2009 is a relatively facile comparison in terms of Kerry struggling to rekindle form and confidence. O’Connor – the manager then as now - referenced it in the wake of the Mayo defeat but as one of his lieutenants of the time, Eamonn Fitzmaurice, has pointed out on these pages, that team was heading for a sixth successive All-Ireland final. It had a squadron of leaders and while Tadhg Morley, Paul Murphy, Tom O’Sullivan, Sean O’Shea, the Cliffords and Gavin White all have the capacity to collar a situation, it’s an elusive standard at the moment.

At half-time in Pairc Ui Chaoimh, the finalists in a kids' kicking competition, piloted by Conor Counihan, the director of football in Cork, presented their nascent skills to the crowd. It was somewhat ironic after a first half in which Cork developed at least four presentable scoring situations but felt too inept to pull the trigger with their feet. There is a dividing line between what constitutes a scoring opportunity and a low percentage pot-shot and most chances for Cork were deemed to fall into the latter category – unless it was in Brian Hurley’s hands. 

Perhaps it was the wind – both managers said it was more of a consideration that spectators imagined – but replacements Eoghan McSweeney and Steven Sherlock had no such inhibitions when Cork released the handbrake in the second period. It was a one-point game when David Gough, the referee, awarded a penalty which yielded the game’s only goal. After the Limerick penalty a week ago awarded to Aaron Gillane, the Cork commentariat's sense of grievance is understandable.

The lack of poise on the Cork side was less a product of anxiety than poor decisions and inexperience at this level. Hurley pulled a free wide on the near side that he might not have converted even with a six-iron. It’s frustrating to think how potent they could be with Cathail O’Mahony (long-term) and Conor Corbett (short-term) because there are water-carriers aplenty at Cleary’s disposal. 

A couple of William Tells would make Cork a top-eight proposition.