REBEL ROUT
Even Kerry boss can’t keep up with figures
EAMONN FITZMAURICE played down Kerry’s record-breaking feats as they coasted to victory over Cork.
The emphatic 3-18 to 2-4 win at Pairc Ui Chaoimh was their biggest over Cork in the Championship in 80 years and completed the Kingdom’s first Munster six-in-a-row since
1980. “I didn’t know that now,” said the Kerry boss. “I think that we prepared very professionally for it, we felt that it was going to be a tough ask coming up here and the lads have applied themselves really well over the last couple off weeks. “We were really zoned in on the game, we wanted to get a performance and we wanted to build on the performance in Killarney against Clare. I think we did that for the most part.” He added: “I think every year you just approach it [the Munster Championship] and you go at it and you try and win it. “It’s where we’re from and then it gives you the direct route to Croke Park, where you want to go so no, we haven’t been thinking about records, we’re just delighted to be where we are now.” It was the first Championship football game to be played at the new Pairc Ui Chaoimh and the Cork footballers will do well attract a crowd to rival the 27,764 attendance going forward on the back of this display. “I thought our big problem was, Kerry obviously didn’t want us to run the ball out, blocked up the centre very well, worked very hard to stop us and we hadn’t enough people supporting the ball carrier when we came out with the ball,” said Cork manager Ronan Mccarthy. “I think we were turned over 19 times in the first half. Some of it very cheap in contact, lost the ball. That was the most disappointing element of it for me. “I felt that our real strength is our running game, our support play. Kerry weren’t going to come out easy on all that. But we lacked support so many times. “Got turned over and they were straight through. We got disjointed. Big gap then between our full-forward line and our half-back line and midfield. “The two goals early on kept us just within touching distance at halftime. They could have been further ahead.”