Cork can lift game but it’s a tall order
WARINESS is the natural disposition of a Kerry person. So, you can imagine how they feel about seeing their neighbours is such a sorry state as they make plans to for a weekend in Killarney. It is making Kerry folk nervous. And jumpy.
There will even be some within the Kingdom who will view the utter ineptitude of Cork’s first-half display against Tipperary as some sort of elaborate ruse ahead of tomorrow’s Munster football final. It is why when Darragh Ó Sé went for maximum yerra by tipping the Rebels during the week, there were plenty of Kerry folk who nodded their head, agreeing with his sentiments.
They may not trust their neighbours, but, at some point, they have to trust the evidence of their own eyes. Even allowing for their impressive secondhalf performance against Tipp, inspired by Paul Kerrigan’s leadership, Cork appear a long, long way from football’s top table.
Such is the gloom that has descended on Cork football that there’s a suggestion their team bus shouldn’t bother passing Ballyvourney tomorrow. But if they do decide to cross the county boundary, the one thing that Peadar Healy’s players must be is ready to go to war. They must bottle all their frustration and take it out on Kerry.
When Cork and Down played out a pedestrian draw on the last day of Division 2 action, it was considered a ‘nothing match’ between two of the mostmaligned teams in the country, but the Rebels need to look to their Ulster counterparts for inspiration.
The Mourne men left the Athletic Grounds dressing-room last Saturday night determined to set the terms of engagement. It unsettled Monaghan, who simply weren’t prepared for their aggression. Cork need to do something similar in Fitzgerald Stadium tomorrow, if they are to have any hope.
The word from inside the Cork set-up is that it is a happy and unified camp and both management and players are mystified as to why performances haven’t been better. There is certainly raw talent within the squad and Luke Connolly’s late goal against Tipp, and the composure they showed to respond to the sucker-punch of Conor Sweeney’s goal, showed there is also character within the team.
What Cork do to try and neutralise Paul Geaney and James O’Donoghue will tell a lot about their game-plan tomorrow. They may have to sacrifice James Loughrey’s speed to give him the remit of quelling one of Kerry’s dangermen, but that will mean they will lose him as an attacking threat.
Peter Kelleher was off the boil against Tipp, but Cork’s tactics, or the absence of any discernible game-plan in the first-half, didn’t help him. They need to supply him with some direct ball so Kerrigan and Colm O’Neill can feed off him and in the likes of Alan O’Connor, Ian Maguire and Ruairi Deane, they have the players around the middle third who can contest the skies with David Moran. Sean Powter’s blistering pace made a difference when he came off the bench against Tipp and Cork need to find a way of utilising it here. Mark Collins simply needs to start.
This is not a bad collection of Cork footballers, and they should now be motivated by personal pride as much as anything else. A fast start will shake Kerry up and give their supporters a sense of hope.
Cork need to remember to be the team that were so calm and composed in scoring the last-minute goal against Tipperary, not the rudderless and shapeless lot that couldn’t hit a barn door in the first-half of that match. But something in the green and gold makes the Rebels raise their game and they will be much better here than anyone is expecting.
O’Donoghue’s class eventually told against Clare, but there were a few shaky moments for Éamonn Fitzmaurice in Ennis. The most encouraging thing for the manager is that he is discovering that younger players are now stepping up and assuming the leadership roles that were once reserved for Marc Ó Sé and Aidan O’Mahony.
Tadhg Morley and Peter Crowley, as well as O’Donoghue, dragged them out of a sticky situation in Cusack Park. It must make Fitzmaurice’s heart swell that he can look at every line on the field and see leaders. Unfortunately for Healy, he can’t do the same thing.
Kerrigan is a leader, but Cork don’t have a whole lot more – or haven’t seemed to have thus far. It is why even if the game is a lot tighter than most expect, the result will be the same. Cork to restore a bit of pride. Kerry to win.