It’s time to reach TWIN PEAKS
Cork have conquered Munster (again), but Daniel Kearney insists they will need to deliver a performance like no other against Limerick if they are to become All-Ireland champions
AT THE June Player of the Month awards, there was momentary confusion amongst a cohort of the media present in the Cork office of sponsors PwC. Patrick Horgan’s presence was expected, given he was the hurler given the nod. Less so, his teammate Daniel Kearney.
Except it quickly emerged as a case of mistaken identity. Turns out Daniel’s identical twin brother William works for the company. Not only is he someone who has similarly worn the Cork senior jersey with pride, but he’s also a chartered accountant.
The truth is, the award could just as easily have gone to Daniel, who has been a revelation this summer as Cork swept to back-to-back Munster titles. He seems re-born in a roving role at wing-forward, where the engine that made him a box-to-box midfielder still drives him around the field.
Still, he is used to being mixed up with his twin.
‘There were a few incidents when we were younger. Walking down the road and somebody would salute me I would give him the eyes and William would get a text saying “you were very cranky today”. It was just a case of mistaken identity. We are both chartered accountants, we both play hurling – he was on the Cork squad as well. We both challenge each other.’ Not that they used it to play practical jokes on people by swapping identities. It’s not as if William is going to slip on to the team bus and make his way to Dublin for the weekend’s All-Ireland semi-final against Limerick. ‘No, we were too serious for that,’ he says, smiling, ‘Didn’t have the wit to do that. William is a corner-back but sometimes he’s seen as a utility player in the club. I suppose it’s different to me. I can drop into any position. ‘I started as a half-back with my club. I can play corner-back, cornerforward. Just happy to get out on the field and be competitive.’ A couple of ill-timed injuries last year – a hand injury in the league against Kilkenny and then an ankle injury pre-Championship – cost him a regular place in the starting 15, new kid on the block Darragh Fitzgibbon nailing down a midfield berth with a series of displays that exhibited a maturity beyond his years.
With Bill Cooper paired alongside him in the engine room, it was incoming manager John Meyler who custom-fitted Kearney for a half-forward line that is built on movement and the principle of creating space.
The match programme lists him at 5’9”, the smallest in stature on the squad. Yet his lines of running, speed to the break, and ability to pop up anywhere around the middle has seen him find a smooth groove.
Take the second round of the Munster Championship, when he was nominally listed to mark Padraic Maher but caused all sorts of problems by floating crossfield.
Two first-half points came after he ran from deep, leaving a frustrated Maher to resort to try and cleave him in two with a tackle, an attempt that saw the Tipperary defender booked for his troubles.
So it’s not all about size and physicality. ‘I think in 2013 everybody said the game had shifted from the Kilkennys and a big physical team to this new running fast game, but now that Kilkenny and Galway won again the game has shifted again,’ he explains.
‘I don’t think there is any pattern or real shifts. It is just about good teams with a mixture of different types of players. I know that aerially I am not going to be the best. What I do is stay out of the aerial battles and focus on the break. ‘It doesn’t cost me any confidence. While I’m not able to compete aerially, physically I know I can go and compete because I have years and years of physical training put in. It doesn’t cost me any confidence. ‘If somebody is 6’6” or 6’4” they may not be able to turn as quick as I can. There are benefits and costs of all sorts, size and shapes. Where somebody has a strength I could see that as a perceived weakness as well and that’s the way I would look at it.’ That day against Tipperary, Cork powered ahead by nine points only to be left scrambling for a draw. In the Munster final, they battled back from eight down to win in style. He knows that elusive complete performance is the target against Limerick at Croke Park this afternoon. ‘A lot of people are asking the question “Why can’t you play for 70 minutes?” But we know that there are other teams who there who are throwing everything at us and it’s impossible to give
that 70-minute performance. So it’s about managing the purple patches and I think we have been quite good at that and we’re are going in with a lot of confidence,’ he insists.
Now 28, this is his eighth year on the squad. The two-legged final against Clare in 2013 is the closest he has come to that All-Ireland medal. ‘I came onto the panel in 2012 when Jimmy-Barry [Murphy] was manager.
‘People tend to measure success by All-Irelands but, you know, we have won a lot of Championship games in that period and hurling has been competitive. There is a real 50/50 chance of winning games and I think we’ve had our fair share of Championship wins.’
He understands the level of expectation in Cork, that the season won’t be a success without bridging that All-Ireland gap after the blow-out against Tipperary in 2014 as provincial champions, and again last year against Waterford.
‘We’ve had two good Munster Championship campaigns but it’s important that we put an All-Ireland series campaign together now. We were caught in 2014 a bit stale coming off the Munster final win. It was a long delay. They were up for that game and they really put us to the sword,’ says Kearney.
‘I think last year we were very well prepared, very confident going into that game and I think everything was going to plan. There were just two big, key moments – the sending off and the goal that changed that game.
‘We were coming into good form at the right time in that game – we could have won that game very easily.’
Deliver the 70-minute performance that Cork have been threatening and they will have one foot in the final.
We were caught a bit stale in 2014 and got put to the sword