Kerry and Cork rekindle Munster Final rivalry
County Board PRO John O’Leary with all the GAA news
The “old order” so to speak is restored once again when Kerry and Cork go head to head in the Munster senior football final in Killarney’s Fitzgerald Stadium on Sunday next (Throw in is at 2pm).
It’s two years since these sides have met in competitive action and their two meetings in 2015 to decide the Munster Championship brought a combine attendance of 68,000 to the famed Killarney venue. The pre-match expectation then, very much like it is now, was that the reigning All-Ireland champions, Kerry, would be too strong for the visitors, but as we all know by now, Cork did everything bar win the drawn game after putting in a tremendous second half display having been four points adrift at the break.
Indeed, it took a tremendous long range point in the final seconds from Fionn Fitzgerald to save Kerry’s bacon and it was a relieved home side who faced a replay at the same venue two weeks later. On that dark and wet Saturday evening, Kerry, without ever reaching top gear, controlled a low scoring game to eventually win by five points.
Since then their paths have gone in different directions with Cork slipping to Division 2 of the League and failing to Tipperary in Munster last year. Kerry, for their part, have failed to defeat Dublin at the final and semi final stages. Cork will not be too worried about having to come to Killarney once again and their graph one would think, can only go in one direction following disappointing displays against both Waterford and Tipperary, two matches they won by the minimum score. The Rebel side did show they were a resilient bunch of players, particularly against Tipperary when they could easily have thrown in the towel following the Premier county’s late goal. They will surely take a lot of heart from their response to that setback.
Kerry’s fine victory over Dublin in the Allianz League final probably masked a few indifferent displays earlier in that competition and they certainly looked a bit ring rusty in their victory over Clare in the first round of the championship. That six points win probably flattered the Kingdom standard bearers a little though it must be remembered that they played with a man short for all of the second half. The return to fitness of David Moran since then will please manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice as will Johnny Buckley’s return to the match day squad. The fact that two or three of the younger players are pushing for places is also a boost for Fitzmaurice and players like Ronan Shanahan, Jack Barry and Kevin McCarthy will have got invaluable exposure to the atmosphere of big match day from that League final.
The Kerry management will know that a wounded Cork side will always have a kick in them and no doubt they will be very wary of a Rebel backlash following recent criticisms of their displays against both Waterford and Tipperary. Fitzmaurice was probably happy enough coming out of Cusack Park three weeks ago, as he and his players would have known that a repeat of that performance would not be sufficient to win a Munster title – regardless of the opposition.
Since the introduction of the qualifiers, Kerry have always favoured route 1 to the quarter finals and with the likes of Mayo, Donegal and Monaghan waiting in the long grass for the losers on Sunday , that direct route is even more important than ever.
The Kerry team will be announced on Friday evening and posted on the Kerry GAA website at 8pm.