John Hayes’ goal gives Cork the edge over Kerry in the McGrath Cup final

Cork 1-11 Kerry 0-10

Some days are just pleasant. We came to this postcard snap of a ground nestled in the hills a couple of miles outside Mallow town and whiled away an afternoon of splendid insignificance. We got a clear sky and a view of the mountains and even a polite heat from a low winter sun that had enough in it to cause a few players to ditch their under-armour at the first break in play. It was nearly a shame to spoil it all with something so coarse as a game of football.

Not that there was anything particularly objectionable with the fare offered up by Cork and Kerry. The home side walked away with the year's first silverware mainly on the back of finally managing a goal after Kerry had spent the thick end of an hour finding new and interesting ways not to. You wouldn't say there was a lot of quality on show but then who'd be coming to McGrath Cup games to find it?

This was January football – nearly everyone trying, nearly everyone coming up short. Late-winter rust and early-spring good intent went in to bat together but rust hogged the strike.

Sinking feeling
Kerry should have been out of sight by half-time but somehow went to their tea with just a one-point lead and the sinking feeling that they'd left another dozen or so behind them. Cork outscored them 1-4 to 0-1 in the first 15 minutes after the restart and put the game beyond out of reach. Ho-hum.

"In the first half we'd a lot of opportunities but we weren't clinical at all in the final third," said Eamonn Fitzmaurice. "In an intercounty match if you're not converting chances, it's going to come back to bite you. We missed a couple of goal chances and getable points. We wouldn't be happy with the performance and the result. But it's the McGrath Cup, we've to go back to planning now for the league.

“We just didn’t function up front today. You get days like that. It’d be more worrying if we weren’t creating the chances. This time last year in the league we weren’t creating them. We created them but didn’t convert them today. If you don’t take your chances, you’ll be in trouble.”

They didn't and they were. Kerry missed four goals in that opening half, kicked six wides, saw three shots drop short and watched one come back off the post. Donnchadh Walsh had the best chance but saw his close-range effort smothered by a scrambling Ken O'Halloran in the Cork goal. Bryan Sheehan and Paul Geaney scuffed and fluffed with the goal gaping, Barry John Keane palmed over from no distance out.

It was a pity because there was plenty in Kerry's build-up play that was worthy of a goal's adornment. David Moran and Anthony Maher were a steel curtain in midfield and Walsh was full of invention. In defence, full-back Mark Griffin was shutting Daniel Goulding down like a jailer in a strop and Peter Crowley was everywhere. They deserved a bigger lead than the 0-5 to 0-4 one that transpired.

Cork set about taking their reprieve with gusto in the second half. Michael Shields pushed out to wing-back and between him, an impressively sleek-looking Aidan Walsh and the doughty Andrew O'Sullivan, they started to grab a hold of the middle of the pitch. Paul Kerrigan kicked them into the lead four minutes after the break, Shields sallied forward to land a monster with the outside of his boot soon after.

Jonathan Lyne stemmed the flow for Kerry with yet another goal chance that ended with them settling for point and as if to confirm that enough was enough, Cork raised the day’s only green flag almost immediately.

A lasered crossfield ball from Aidan Walsh found John Hayes and after battling clear of the intentions of Paul Murphy, the half-time substitute found himself clear trough on goal. A shuffle and shimmy took him around Kerry goalkeeper Brian Kelly, leaving a simple finish.

It put Cork 1-7 to 0-6 ahead and when Daniel Goulding followed up with the game’s next two points, there was no road back for Kerry. They made a bit of a burst late on with points from Lyne, Shane O’Callaghan and Keane (a free).

Still, it lent the closing stages a frisson and laid fertile ground for the sprouting of black cards. Shields and Fintan Goold walked for Cork and Aidan O’Mahony only managed eight minutes of action before he too saw the line for a late tackle on Aidan Walsh. All three decisions were pretty much cut and dried and if anything, Cork centre-forward Mark Collins was lucky not to suffer the same fate for a fairly blatant tug on Crowley as the Kerry wing-back set sail for goal.

Cork manager Brian Cuthbert declared himself mystified when it came to some advantage-rule decisions made by referee Derek O'Mahoney.

“I am just wondering are you allowed to touch a player now when he kicks the ball,” said Cuthbert. “There were two frees given to Kerry today – I am not being critical about the referee but I found it hard to fathom that. Any bit of pressure at all on the kicker and if it doesn’t go over the bar the referee seemed to be happy to give back the free. We have to look at it again on video but I felt that was over the top.”

It seemed a petty enough point for Cuthbert to be getting stuck into. Cork closed the game out at their ease and the referee had no significant impact on the result. On a day of wind-chime pleasantries, it felt like a needless clang of rancour.
CORK: 1 K O'Halloran; 20 J McLoughlin, 3 E Cadogan, 4 M Shields (0-1); 5 J Loughery, 6 T Clancy, 7 K O'Driscoll; 8 A Walsh (0-1), 9 F Goold; 10 C O'Driscoll, 11 M Collins (0-1), 12 A O'Sullivan (0-1); 13 D Goulding (0-4, 0-2 frees), 14 P Kerrigan (0-2), 15 B O'Driscoll. Subs: J Hayes (1-0) for C O'Driscoll (44 mins), D O'Connor (0-1, free) for B O'Driscoll (44 mins), M Sugrue for Collins ( 55 mins), B Hurley for Goulding ( 62 mins). Black card: M Ó Laoire for Goold (63 mins), A Sheehan for Shields (65 ).
KERRY: 1 B Kelly; 2 P Murphy, 3 M Griffin, 4 S Enright; 5 P Crowley, 6 J Sherwood, 7 M Geaney; 8 A Maher, 9 D Moran; 10 J Lyne (0-2), 11 B Sheahan (0-3, 0-2 frees, 0-1 45), 12 D Walsh (0-1); 13 BJ Keane (0-3, 0-1 free), 22 P Geaney, 14 A Fitzgerald. Subs: 18 S O'Callaghan (0-1) for Fitzgerald ( half-time), 23 M Mangan for Maher (44 mins), 20 P Galvin for Sherwood (55 mins), 21 A O'Mahony for Sheehan ( 55 mins), 17 B Maguire for M Geaney, (62 mins), Black card: B Shanahan for O'Mahony ( 63 mins).
Referee: D O'Mahony (Tipperar