Lacklustre Kerry do enough to see off Cork
IN THE end, the result may have been as predicted, but Kerry’s discomfort and Cork’s pride played for real.
There is nothing new in any of that as that is how their meetings have rolled for the last two years, but what remains to be seen is what both of them will take from this.
In the past, and not just the recent one, Kerry tended to treat this fixture as a tough day at school and apply the learnings down the road. Meanwhile Cork have been in the habit of viewing this as a graduation of sorts, perhaps reading too much into what is ultimately a mock exam paper.
If there is a lesson in this for the Rebels it was in how they literally were left watching as the game was taken away from them.
When Brian Hurley kicked over the last point of the game in the fifth minute of injury time, it was their first in 16 minutes.
Their achievement was that they were never out of this game, their failure was never going after winning it.
Trailing by two points as the game slipped into the final five minutes of regular time it jarred to see Cork’s Ruairí Deane standing in a sweeping role on the edge of the square as Kerry played keep ball for minutes in a phase of play that will be played on a loop for Jim Gavin’s benefit.
And that sequence of Kerry keep-ball that left the 17,658 attendance heavy-lidded ended inevitably with David Clifford being pulled to the ground for Seán O Shea to knock over a close range free. Game over.
In truth, those final minutes were symptomatic of how Cork allowed Kerry take control of this game after an opening quarter in which it really looked as if they could defy their 8/1 odds as they threatened to blow their hosts away.
At the start the big tactical surprise was that Cork decided to go after Kerry and it worked an absolute treat.
Rather than sitting Seán Powter in a dedicated sweeping role in front of David Clifford, they trusted Daniel O’Mahony to go one on one and it was a trust repaid.
The pay off was at the other end, sensing Kerry’s discomfort in a restructured defence in Jason Foley’s absence, Powter pushing up on Gavin White allowed Cork unleash their pace man on man on a Kerry defence that was left with scorch burns early on.
The wonder was that they were limited to just the one goal, the ease of which in the fourth minute astonished and saw Paul Walsh race through to take Ian Maguire’s pass and roll the ball into the net.
It could and should have been more, Brian Hurley and Chris Óg Jones having the measure of Tadhg Morley and Paul Murphy in foot races, ensuring that every time Cork got the ball into the fullforward line, another goal was in the offing.
On the flip side, where Kerry were expected to struggle around the middle of the field they thrived, turning over four Cork kick-outs in the first half. But they struggled to profit, with Paudie Clifford spurning a gilt-edge goal chance in the sixth minute from one of those turnovers when he rolled the ball wide.
On top of that, his younger brother was having one of those days when the ball almost seemed like a foreign object spilling from his hands, skiing off his boot, while O’Mahony fasted on every error.
And, yet for all that, by half-time Kerry may have trailed by a point (1-7 to 0-9), yet they were the ones who had thieved the momentum.
There were a number of factors why that was the case – the tightening of the Kerry rearguard was summed up in particular by Murphy’s mastery of Jones after that opening quarter, Cork’s reverting to type as Powter dropped off in front of his defence, and with the sun shining it would have been rude of the home team not to make hay.
It invited trouble for Cork, not least in the marauding Tom O’Sullivan who would finish the game with 0-3 from corner-back.
And despite both Clifford’s having off days – that said David would still finish with 0-4 – Seán O’Shea was at both his industrious best without the ball and imperious best with it, finishing with 0-6 including 0-3 from play.
The caution that gripped Cork – their tally of 0-6 in the final three quarters was three points less than they managed in the opening quarter – would prove fatal.
With a gentle breeze behind them in the second half, they gave up the Kerry kick-outs with dire consequences.
From their first four kick-outs in the second period, Kerry would score a point off each. It’s a lesson Cork would do well to heed.