MUNSTER SFC SEMI-FINAL REPLAY/Kerry 1-15 Cork 1-14:A BIG game to win. A bigger game to lose. Kerry, old and sated and lamenting the loss of a Mount Rushmore of great figures, came to Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday and went to extra-time before taking down a Cork team blessed with youth and talent and burdened with favouritism.
This was a game the import of which will not be known for a couple of months. Cork head off into the qualifiers hoping to re-emerge at the business end of the championship with a better knowledge of themselves and what constitutes their best 15. That may be the easy part. Coping with the psychological damage inflicted yesterday may be more difficult.
It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Hitherto Cork have certainly found Kerry spooky in Croke Park where the green and gold act like landlords and treat Cork as tenants. In Munster, however, most especially in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the story has been different.
Kerry should have faded yesterday in front of 26,486 spectators. Their bench shouldn’t have matched Cork’s. Their hunger should have been a thin candle flame set against Cork’s inferno. They should have been outgunned, outmuscled and outplayed. Not to be.
Kerry made two changes from the team which started in Killarney. Anthony Maher came in for Mike Quirke in midfield and David Moran replaced Darren O’Sullivan on the right wing. The intention with Moran was to win a little more ball with which to bring Kieran Donaghy and Colm Cooper into the game, and the young scion played the first two or three balls dutifully to the inside line.
With Donaghy taking a long time to settle, however, he bungled the first few deliveries he was asked to sign for.
Beside him, however Colm Cooper had obviously decided that this year he wouldn’t bother collecting the annual “Gooch Burnt Out?” headlines which mark his early appearances. He was Man of the Match and the game’s most influential and shrewd operator.
With Donaghy misfiring early on, Cork (playing the same lineout as last week) took a two-point lead early on through a pair of frees. Referee Pat McEnaney, determined as usual to produce a good game of football, saw the need to keep the lid firmly pressed down early on and flashed the yellow cards with uncharacteristic ease in order to achieve his goal.
Cork were brisker going forward than in the drawn game and their goal in the 16th minute rewarded their adventure even if it came at a price. A high, spiralling ball from Aidan Walsh was met with confidence and aggression by Brendan Kealy, but when the Kerry goalie met traffic back on terra firma, Daniel Goulding dispossessed him and toe-poked the ball to the Kerry net.
Walsh appeared to strain a hamstring while kicking, however, and was withdrawn within a minute.
So it went through to half-time, Kerry piecing together attractive passages of football but Cork looking the more powerful side.
Paul Kerrigan wasn’t in the form of last week but Ciarán Sheehan was compensating with an excellent performance. The four points which separated the sides at the break seemed about right.
Kerry were only getting started, however. Paul Galvin had joined the fray to the usual pantomime booing on 27 minutes and he became a hugely influential figure again. A minute into the second half Donnacha Walsh initiated a move deep on the right side. He knew who was looking for. The old firm of Cooper and Donaghy concluded the deal, Cooper playing a perceptive, long fisted pass to the big man who slotted it home with a sangfroid which had no trace of his earlier foosterings.
Donncha O’Connor scored from a free to settle the home side and then added another point from play before Kerry enjoyed a slice of luck. Donaghy appeared to kick the ball over the endline but a 45 was awarded which Bryan Sheehan converted. A three-point game with half an hour left.
Ten minutes later the margin was still the same but Cooper was about to take matters into his hands. He scored three points from frees, two of which were for fouls drawn on himself.
With 10 minutes left, Jamie O’Sullivan was lucky to stay on field after pulling Cooper down as he went through on goal. Three minutes later McEnaney red-carded Graham Canty for the same offence as Cooper scooted through again. Canty had a yellow from the first half.
We went to endgame. Or so we thought. Cork, increasingly aimless in attack, were hoisting ball after ball into the square in the hope of reprising their goal. No green flags but a late, long free got fumbled in the square. Ciarán Sheehan took the break and popped a kick over his shoulder and the bar. Cork a point ahead. Clock running down.
And on we hurtled on into injury time. As so often in Kerry football history, cometh the hour cometh the Ó Sé. Marc Ó Sé this time, far from his corner back posting as he became the link in a string of passes before popping over an accomplished point to force extra time. Wonderful.
Extra time was about the depth of each panel and it gave the lie to the theory that Cork had the better and more vibrant bench. Fintan Goold gave Cork an early lead. Cooper wiped it out with yet another free out of his hands. Then Kerry’s young sub BJ Keane enjoyed another purple patch and snitched two points in a row to leave Kerry two ahead going into the final period of the game.
The game was frenetic now, the ball and the surface greasy. Tired players were making errors. Cork made one last push in the second period of extra time. Noel O’Leary, back in as a blood sub, scored a fine point. Cooper, who else, snuffed it out with a free after Eoin Cadogan fouled Donaghy. Cadogan went forward and won a free. John Hayes converted. And that was it.
Kerry by a point. Limerick in the Munster final. Kerry not looking so decrepit or washed out anymore. Cork hit the circuit.
KERRY: 1 B Kealy; 2 M Ó Sé (0-1), 3 T Griffin, 4 T O’Sullivan; 5 T Ó Sé, 6 M McCarthy 7 K Young; 8 S Scanlon 19 A Maher; 25 D Moran, 11 Declan O’Sullivan (0-2) 12 D Walsh; 13 C Cooper (0-6), 14 K Donaghy (1-1), 15 B Sheehan (0-3, two frees). Subs: P Galvin for D Moran (27 mins), M Quirke for Maher (53 mins), BJ Keane (0-2) for Sheehan (55), Darren O’Sullivan for D Walsh (58), D Bohane for T Ó Sé (67), A O’Connell for K Young (78), D Walsh for Scanlon (86 mins).
CORK: 1 A Quirke; 2 R Carey 3 G Canty 4 J O’Sullivan; 5 N O’Leary, 6 M Shields (0-1), 7 P Kissane. 8 A O’Connor, 9 A Walsh: 10 P O’Neill 11 D O’Connor (0-4), 12 P Kelly (0-1), 13 D Goulding (1-3), 14 C Sheehan (0-2), 15 P Kerrigan. Subs: D Kavanagh for A Walsh (16 mins), E Cadogan for O’Leary (52 mins), C O’Neill for Goulding (56), F Goold (0-1) for D Kavanagh (57) K McMahon for P Kerrigan (69 mins) J Miskella on for extra time replacing Canty (red-carded in normal time.); E Cotter for J O’Sullivan (80 mins), N O’Leary (0-1) for Miskella (80 blood sub; J Hayes (0-1, a free) for D O’Connor (75 mins).
Referee: P McEnaney ( Monaghan).
