Quarter-finals offer few clues as to winner of knockout tie

Kerry v Cork Tuesday, May 8 Austin Stack Park at 7pm

WELL, here it is again! For the third time in four years in the Munster Minor Championship it’s Kerry versus Cork in a semi-final with the loser finished for the year before the summer starts in earnest. The rights and wrongs of this situation aside, Kerry have a tremendous record in these matches, not just against Cork but elsewhere as only the 2011 defeat to Tipperary in Thurles stands as a recent loss at this stage.

No two years at Minor level are ever the same and maybe more so this year with the Minor Championship now fully played with under-17 footballers. Last year at this stage was arguably where David Clifford showed us he was everything we thought he would be after the promise of 2016, but with no such experience to call on ahead of Tuesday night, matters are delicately posed. Kerry’s first outing in Thurles showed us there is something there for the Minors to be positive about, maybe the fact Tipperary have come through the Losers Round play-offs to make the other semi-final with Clare shows they actually did beat a useful outfit, but the lack of spring and panache does lend itseld towards caution in six days’ time.

Exciting forward Paul Walsh gained most of the plaudits for the Thurles victory, but we must acknowledge the fact that the Kerry defence only conceded four points as well, but this will be a fair more serious examination of their worth with Aodhan Ó Luasa expected to be the main Cork threat alongside Conor Corbett and Sean McDonnell. Calling this is most difficult as we have only one competitive game and the younger age of all the players to go on but it is delicately poised in advance.

Usually an All-Ireland Schools success would give you the confidence about a Kerry Minor side doing well after. There isn’t such a success to go on here this year and you feel on the law of averages Cork will get the better of Kerry sometime at this level. Whether it is next Tuesday night in the cauldron in Austin Stack Park only time will tell but don’t be surprised if this goes all the way to extra-time like three years ago in the last such meeting in Tralee.