Jack O'Connor: Cork will fancy their chances against Kerry

Kerry manager O'Connor believes Cork's promotion to Division 1, their settled team, and recent good form mean the Kingdom expect a real test in Sunday's Munster SFC final

Kerry manager Jack O'Connor: "We have a proud record in Killarney as well, so we'll certainly be putting our best foot forward on Sunday." Pic: ©INPHO/Bryan Keane

15 points - Kerry’s average winning margin across the last five Munster finals.

13,081 - the average Munster football final attendance across the last four years.

If those figures aren’t enough to convince you of how irrelevant Munster football’s concluding afternoon has become, there’s further evidence to present. Evidence that counters the overworked statement claiming the Munster championship has suffered for the lack of a Cork-Kerry final since 2021.

Across the last 10 deciders, on only three occasions has the final winning margin not ended up in double digits.

Kerry’s three-point win over Cork in 2019 and Tipp overcoming the Leesiders by the same margin the following year were both close contests and complete outliers. The average winning margin across the remaining eight deciders from the last decade reaches 14 points.

A crowd of almost 32,000 in Killarney for the 2017 Cork-Kerry final barely crept over the 13,000-mark at the same venue 12 months ago when Clare were the visitors. That’s a fall-off of 60%.

The 2023 and ‘24 Kerry-Clare deciders, in Limerick and Ennis respectively, failed to even reach that 13,000 mark.

Even the pull of a Cork-Kerry final meeting had begun to lose attractiveness before they became relative strangers on the concluding afternoon.

A 27,764-attendance watched Paul Geaney reel off 2-5 from play and Kerry romp home 17-point winners at Páirc Uí Chaoimh in June of 2018. At the same venue 12 months later, the crowd had shrunk by 34%.

There are no convenient narratives here, just unforgiving facts.

The reality of the Munster final’s sharp decline forced provincial top brass to act last summer and push through a system that would go close to guaranteeing a Cork-Kerry decider May after May. The pushback of players from Clare, Limerick, Tipp, and Waterford delayed the introduction of this League-based seeding arrangement.

The kindness of the 2026 draw negated the postponement. The bean counters got the final they wanted. It is now up to Cork to at the very least replicate the competitiveness that delivered one-score Munster semi-final contests against Kerry over the past two years, the most recent of which required extra-time.

Bar the debate over who should start in goal, Cork head into their Munster SFC final against Kerry with a real consistency of selection this year. Pic: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

“I don't think you'll have any trouble with that this year,” replied Kerry manager Jack O’Connor when asked about the importance of a long overdue Munster football final that draws patrons in the gates and then succeeds in holding their attention for the full 70 minutes.

“People will realise after last year that Cork are right there. I don't think there will be any problem with competitiveness next Sunday.” 

For the first time since 2015, Cork enter the Munster final wearing Division 1 clothes. Their 2026 form chart shows eight wins and two defeats. Their selection chart shows equal consistency.

Outside of the ongoing goalkeeping debate between Micheál Aodh Martin and Patrick Doyle, all other game-to-game personnel switches have been dictated by suspension or injury. John Cleary knows his strongest line-up and has refused from early in the spring to deviate from such.

Five players - Daniel O’Mahony, Luke Fahy, Paul Walsh, Seán McDonnell, and Chris Óg Jones - have started all 10 games. Four more - Maurice Shanley, Colm O’Callaghan, Mark Cronin, and Steven Sherlock - have started all bar one of the 10.

But for the injury that kept Dara Sheedy out of the Tipp win two weeks ago, the Cork front six would have been unchanged for the fifth game in succession.

“They seem to have a very settled team. That's always a help going into a championship, to have a settled team. They seem to be progressing year by year,” Jack continued.

“We felt that they were good last year and they proved that. They gave us a bellyful in the Munster semi-final and then they were well on top of us in the first half of the qualifier, again, in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, but we managed to turn the tide in the second half.

“But certainly, they have a good set-up there, a good management, and a very settled team. And Steven Sherlock is a big addition to them this year. The Dingle boys experienced that in the Munster Club final. So, he's certainly another string in their bow, and they'll be fancying their chances, no doubt about it.

“Cork will certainly be giving themselves a great chance, coming down with the confidence of having got to Division 1. They like playing in Killarney, they usually bring a big crowd to Killarney. But we have a proud record in Killarney as well, so we'll certainly be putting our best foot forward on Sunday.” 

A few more figures to finish up with. Kerry went untouched in 12 of the last 13 Munster championships. Cork have won just one of their last 14 championship meetings with the green and gold.

In light of Cork advances this season and Kerry's lengthy injury list, there’s the potential for so much to be rewritten on Sunday. Or will Munster football's nothing-to-see-here concluding day continue on with familiar predictability and irrelevance?