All-Ireland glory

tactic.

Last Sunday Kerry did little running and when they did they caused problems however Cork changed their defensive tactics. Cork packed the defence. So much so that even when they led by seven points in the last minute of the game they still had 12 players behind the ball inside their own ‘45.

Cork produced the blanket defence and Kerry couldn’t get through. They couldn’t get close to Martina O’Brien’s goal and because of this had no real goal threat.

In Macroom, Kerry had a full forward on fire, Louise Ni Mhuirceartaigh was outstanding that night. She ran riot over a Cork defensive pack that simply had no answer.

Well in the interim, Cork found the answer and that came in the form of Bríd Stack.

The All Ireland winner gave Ní Mhuirceartaigh a terrible night on Sunday. She kept tight all game and never gave the Kerry number 14 a sniff of goal, in fact the full-forward was only able to manage one point, and that was from a placed ball.

Stack was immense but she wasn’t the only one in the Cork back lines. Deirdre O’Reilly was also impressive in the centre back role and despite not getting the Player of the Match award she really was Cork’s top performer.

For Kerry, the midfield dynamo that is Bernie Breen also failed to get to grips with a game that was dominated in the middle third by Hannah Looney and