TOM HUMPHRIESlistens to the Kerry players after the match and gets an insight into the working of a pure football brain

MARC Ó SÉ comes among us after a famous victory and typical of his tribe lays it down. Doesn’t say yerra. Just expresses it.

“It was a good win and a tough battle. We never expect it to be easy against Cork.”

He won’t bring up his extraordinary point which brought the game into extra time but people will ask him about it for years to come. His answer is an insight into the working of a pure football brain.

“I saw Daniel Bohane making a run down the left-hand side. I knew he would have to turn back because there were two or three Cork fellas there, so I said I’d give him support. I got the ball and I turned out, but there was nobody really showing so I had to turn back in. Next thing I saw Bohane going again so I took the one-two. It just opened up for me and thankfully it went over.”

Thankfully.

So having fluked their way into extra time, Kerry prevailed. Ó Sé put it down to character.

“They were talking last week about fellas not playing so well the last day, but I think there is good character in the team. Fellas show they are able to step up to the plate. Never anything between these teams. We just got the rub of the green today.

“We knew today we needed to do better in the middle. We did that. Our tackling was good the last day, especially when Paul came in. It was something we worked on for today. The tackling and the breaks.”

Bryan Sheehan stood in the boardroom, a man coming into his time, enjoying his captaincy and fulfilling his potential. This is a good day.

“I can’t remember the last time we won down here. We are delighted to come out of it. Cork aren’t an easy team to beat and with the record they have here it feels good.

“But look, nothing is won yet. We have to put the head down and look forward to a Munster final.”

It wasn’t supposed to be like this though, was it. Had Kerry not received a copy of the script?

“Every year people knock us. We are gone. We have no hunger. Look at last weekend. Look at today. Fellas have gone away. Other fellas have stepped up. The bench made a massive contribution today.”

And Colm Cooper’s input. The main difference in seven days?

“The Gooch is probably the best footballer in the country. The problem last week was trying to get the ball into him. Last week Cork dominated midfield. We keyed into that for this week. We needed to win or break even there. We got the ball inside today. Colm is very hard to stop.

“This short way is the way you always want to go. We met a good Cork team the last couple of years and it didn’t happen. Is it an advantage? We’ll see. Maybe if we had beaten Cork last ear we wouldn’t have found out exactly where we stood. But we found a lot out about ourselves last weekend.”

Conor Counihan surveyed the back door and resigned himself to having to pass under its lintel and find out about life on the other side.

“Look, at the minute it is the only door open. We will just have to take the challenge. The group of fellas we have are very committed I think we will rise to it. We have been around a long time. We haven’t gone away. It’ll take us a few days but we will settle down and regroup and give it our best shot. Obviously it is disappointing to lose, especially to our great rivals Kerry, but that is sport. You have to take it.

“There may be questions asked about the way we played today and something outside our control today and the last day, but we are going to move on.”

Graham Canty conceded that turning around at half-time a few points to the good against Kerry had left Cork satisfied. The setbacks came later. The consequences have to be dealt with.

“You lose to Kerry it’s not the end of the world. You enter the All-Ireland series a little earlier, leave Munster a little earlier. It will be difficult but it is what we have. We have an All-Ireland series left. Kerry and Tyrone have shown it is manageable. You can go this way and get to the all Ireland final.”

On his sending off?

“The ball broke, I went for the ball and went to pick it up, I managed a touch. Colm Cooper arrived at the same time. I managed to pick up a second yellow. When you come out the wrong side of things you always reckon one or two things went against you, but that’s the way it goes.”