ALL-IRELAND SFC QUARTER-FINAL/Cork 2-11 Kildare 1-11: MORE STRANGE goings-on from the 2008 football championship. Cork gave us a glimpse of a group rapidly approaching full maturity only to remind us of their propensity to stagger at crucial junctures.
Leading by nine points just a few strides into the second half, they decided to coast into an All-Ireland semi-final with old friends Kerry on August 24th and by the death they were forced to strain every sinew to deny Kildare a clear shot at goal. A green flag would have meant a replay.
Conor Counihan is as much a rookie manager at this level as Kieran McGeeney - perhaps more so considering McGeeney just stepped off the Armagh treadmill - and it showed. He partially conceded afterwards that replacing Derek Kavanagh, despite the Nemo man finally coming of age as a full back, 10 minutes into the second half very nearly proved a cataclysmic error.
In mitigation, Kavanagh was on a yellow card and a warning from referee Pat McEnaney. Introducing a completely different type of player in Michael Shields (who is smaller) sent out a clear message that Cork felt they were out the gate.
If Kildare had joined Wexford in the All-Ireland semi-finals it would have made a mockery of the championship. The Munster champions would have lost to a team beaten by Wicklow in Leinster.
That Cork were unable to put matters to bed long before the finish leaves the regular observer with a clear assumption that they undoubtedly possess the personnel to win in September, just not the force of will.
Let's take matters up just after Kavanagh's large frame was removed from the picture.
For a change Kildare's stand-out forward was not John Doyle, although he finished with 1-5. Doyle was wrapped up by Anthony Lynch so Alan Smith took up the Lilywhite scoring torch.
When Diarmuid Duggan rugby-tackled him en route to goal Kildare were thrown a lifeline that Ronan Sweeney proceeded to waste. Now, the officials must shoulder some of the blame here as Cork goalkeeper Alan Quirke planted himself well off the goalline as Sweeney prepared his run. By the time he struck the penalty Quirke had made the target smaller again and a poor shot was easily gathered.
It should have been retaken but apart from that McEnaney had a fine game. The best referees are rarely seen or heard and that is the Monaghan man's approach.
It took another 10 minutes for Smith and Doyle to rack up three more points. Besides occasional forays into attack for John Hayes and Daniel Goulding points, Doyle had found his range from dead balls and Cork had become desperately stagnant; mired in a lead that Kerry and Dublin would turn into a carnival of shooting practice.
Dermot Earley was largely eclipsed in the midfield contest by a multitude of opponents with the Cork half-back line sweeping up most breaking ball.
Still, when in desperate need of inspiration, Earley came on to the ball at pace with one foray earning another penalty after Ger Spillane pulled him down. Doyle's finish delighted the recently arrived Kilkenny hurling supporters and made it a three-point game.
Earley was again the man who grasped possession in a desperate endgame scramble but he looked up to see a haze of red jerseys blocking his sight of goal.
Both teams came in handicapped by fate. While Kildare were playing their fourth game in as many weeks, Cork captain Graham Canty and veteran midfielder Nicholas Murphy failed morning fitness tests allowing Michael Cussen and James Masters come in from the start.
Cussen is deployed in much the same way Kieran Donaghy is for Kerry, like a lighthouse on the square's edge, and while effective at full forward he doesn't possess the guile, agility or handling skills that Donaghy brings to the party.
The first three balls dropped on Cussen were batted to safety but when used as a decoy, drifting away from goal, John Hayes gathered, held off Kevin O'Neill and finished past Enda Murphy.
Hayes was devouring corner back Morgan O'Flaherty, who along with O'Neill could hardly be blamed considering the Cork dominance out the field.
The second goal came off an attempted point by Masters that Cussen punched to the net before Murphy could gather.
On 19 minutes Eamonn Callaghan finally registered Kildare's first point of the day. The only problem was Cork already had 2-3 on the board. McGeeney was quick to react, pulling off four players by the 27th minute, including his anonymous captain Killian Brennan.
After a slow start Kildare got going with Smith and Earley posting points to help bring matters back to 2-5 to 0-5 by the turn.
Cork's response was to land three quick scores at the start of the second half, from John Hayes, Pearse O'Neill and Cussen, which appeared to kill off the game.
That they almost capitulated while Kildare bravely hung in there tells us a lot or very little. Either way, the truth behind this Cork team will be revealed the next day.
CORK: 1 A Quirke; 2 D Duggan, 3 D Kavanagh, 4 A Lynch; 5 B O'Regan, 6 G Spillane, 7 K O'Connor; 11 P O'Neill (0-2), 9 A O'Connor; 14 D O'Connor, 24 J Masters (0-1), 12 S O'Brien; 13 D Goulding (0-3, one free), 21 M Cussen (1-2), 15 J Hayes (1-3). Subs: 17 M Shields for D Kavanagh (46 mins), 18 J Miskella for B O'Regan (51 mins), 23 F Goold for D O'Connor (both 51 mins), 27 P Kelly for A O'Connor (59 mins), 19 N O'Leary for D Duggan (66 mins).
KILDARE: 1 E Murphy; 2 M O'Flaherty, 3 K O'Neill, 4 A MacLochlainn; 5 E Bolton, 6 M Foley, 7 M Scanlon; 8 K Brennan (capt), 9 D Earley (0-1); 10 J Kavanagh, 11 P O'Neill, 12 E Callaghan (0-1); 13 A Smith (0-3), 28 K Donnelly, 15 J Doyle (1-5, four frees, goal pen). Subs: 17 D Flynn for K Brennan (17 mins), 14 G White for M Scanlon (17 mins), 18 M Conway (0-1, free) for P O'Neill (23 mins), 19 R Sweeney for K Donnelly (26 mins), 24 A Rainbow for J Kavanagh (65 mins).
Referee: P McEnaney (Monaghan).
