Drive for Five becomes drive to survive for all concerned as Kerry wipe floor with Cork

Kerry 1-23 Cork 0-15

THE Yanks would have dubbed the build-up to Sunday’s Munster Final as Kerry’s ‘Drive for Five’ but by half past three that afternoon it was all about a drive to survive. Not Cork’s survival, mind. They were toast long before that. More for whatever number of the 31,836 souls stoically remained to the end of one of the most drab, underwhelming Munster football finals in years.

It takes two to tango but the Cork footballers left their dancing shoes at home. That and a whole lot more. No one expected Cork to win here, but there was a tacit expectation that they would be competitive. That they’d bring some sort of weapon to the fight. They weren’t and they didn’t. They were abject.

Of course, it should be stated that Kerry were excellent. From the start and throughout. The champions were fit, fired and focused. They were tight yet expansive, disciplined but expressive. When Kerry hit the ground running Cork just hit the ground.

It always sounds a little cliched when managers and players talk pre-match about keeping focussed and preparing for one game likes it’s any other game. But all the top sports people and teams stick rigidly to a formula. They do the same things - the right things - over and over. Why? Because it works. Once upon a time those things were known as piseoga; now they’re repetitions. Kerry, by and large, do the same things over and over and expect the same result. They pass the ball intelligently and crisply. They have patience. They get the ball to the right man in the right place for the percentage shot.

Cork - at least this Cork team do the same things over and over and apparently expect different results. Insanity, Einstein called it. On Sunday Cork came with their usual running game, and while it did create a few goal chances for them, the couldn’t trouble Kerry overall because they couldn’t mix up their game. Cork’s inability to think smartly on the hoof, to change up their gameplan, to ask serious questions of Kerry was at complete odds with Kerry’s ability to be inventive and dynamic and unconventional.

In the end Kerry simply wiped the floor with Cork as they hoovered up a fifth Munster title on the trot and the county’s 79th in all.

It took 12 seconds for Paul Geaney to get Kerry off the mark, David Moran doing the approach work from the throw-in. A minute later Geaney turned provider for his cousin Mikey (pictured below with Kevin Crowley), and a minute on again full back Mark Griffin raided forward to tee up James O’Donoghue for his first of the day. Before the fourth minute was done Kevin McCarthy set up Paul Geaney for his second and Kerry’s fourth point. Cork settled in for a long afternoon.

Teams endure, and recover, from bad starts, but this was different. Kerry were 0-6 to 0-1 to the good when Ian Maguire - one of the Rebels very few points of resistence - broke inside and bore down on goal. Unfortunately for all concerned - Cork and Kerry the midfielder missed the sort of chance no Cork team can afford in Killarney.

Cork were six adrift, 0-8 to 0-2, after 18 minutes but points from Maguire, two Niall Coakley frees and a Luke Connolly free kept them in contention, even if Kerry carried the greater threat, with Paul Geaney drawing a smart save from Ken O’Halloran from close range in the 27th minute.

Tomas Clancy’s 36th minute point made it 0-10 to 0-7 and remarkably Cork were within a score having been well outplayed for the half. And then a moment that epitomised the difference between the best and the rest. Just after the two additional minutes for the half were announced Connolly tried an audacious shot at a point from over 50 metres that tailed well wide. It left time for Brian Kelly to find a team mate from the kick out and in the remain 30 seconds Kerry worked the ball upfield and found Paul Geaney who calmly worked the space and angle to score. It turned what couyld have been, with a little Cork patience, a twopoint Cork deficit into a four-point Kerry lead. Cork’s hill just got a little steeper, needlessly.

The first minutes of the second half would, clearly, be crucial for a Cork team still in contention on the scoreboard but hanging on everywhere else. Within three minutes Kerry had four points scored, through substitute Stephen O’Brien (2), David Moran and O’Donoghue, who tidied up after James Loughrey had initially blocked his goal-bound shot. Just three minutes after the restart Kerry were eight points clear. Cork were on life-support.

That old running game did but Tomas Clancy a goal chance to perhaps drag his team back into the contest but after a surging run, Clancy smacked his shot into the side-netting. Moments later O’Donoghue screwed a shot wide in the 42nd minute - Kerry’s first wayward attempt of the day.

Donncha O’Connor - introduced at half time - carried the fight for Cork, scoring six points in the closing quarter, while Paul Kerrigan - another of Cork’s few and far between positive performers - drew a strong save from Kelly in the 44th minute. Small things that suggested a slight vulnerability in Kerry’s defence as much as any great reinvention of themselves by Cork.

Kerry’s total dominance was underlined when Paul Geaney bundled the ball past O’Halloran for the game’s only goal after 64 minutes, seconds after Cork defender Jamie O’Sullivan was dismissed for a black card foul. Kieran Donaghy had the vital assist for Geaney’s goal in a performance that hinted that the bigger man could yet have as much of a say in the rest of Kerry’s summer as Geaney and O’Donoghue who scored 1-8 between them from play.

By the time Johnny Buckley accepted the silverware, with club mate Fionn Fitzgerald alongside after recovering from a game-ending injury, the thinking was simple. No one will want to meet Kerry in the All-Ireland quarter-final at the end of the month; no one will fear Cork in the Qualifiers in a forthnight.

KERRY: Brian Kelly, Fionn Fitzgerald, Mark Griffin, Shane Enright (0-1), Peter Crowley, Tadhg Morley, Paul Murphy (0-1), David Moran (0-1), Anthony Maher (0-1), Mikey Geaney (0-2, 1 ‘45), Kevin McCarthy, Donnchadh Walsh, Paul Geaney (1-5, 1f), Kieran Donaghy (0-1), James O’Donoghue (0-7, 4f) Subs: Stephen O’Brien (0-3) for D Walsh, half-time, Johnny Buckley for K McCarthy, 40, Killian Young for F Fitzgerald (inj), 49, Jack Barry for A Maher, 58, Barry John Keane (0-1) for J O’Donoghue, 62, Darran O’Sullivan for K Donaghy, 63, Jonathan Lyne for M Geaney, 65

CORK: Ken O’Halloran, Michael Shields, Jamie O’Sullivan, Kevin Crowley, Tomás Clancy (0-1), James Loughrey, Sean Powter, Aidan Walsh, Ian Maguire (0-1), Ruairí Deane, Mark Collins (0-2, 1f), Kevin O’Driscoll, Niall Coakley (0-2f), Luke Connolly (0-2, 1f), Paul Kerrigan (0-1) Subs: Donncha O’Connor (0-6, 4f) for N Coakley, half-time, Alan O’Connor for R Deane, 38, Colm O’Driscoll for M Shields, 40, Michael Hurley for K O’Driscoll, 44, Stephen Cronin for J Loughrey, 62 Black Card: Eoin Cadogan for J O’Sullivan, 61

REFEREE: Paddy Neilan (Roscommon)