Under discussion: Sunday's Munster SFC final clash between the rop two sides in the country.
Chatting are: Eamonn Fitzmaurice, Tony Leen, Fintan O’Toole, John Fogarty and Terry Reilly.
TERRY REILLY (Irish Examiner assistant sports editor): The way Jack O’Connor set up his side to get out of the blocks early in Sunday's Munster final and build up a lead was a masterstroke. But, given the way they performed in the second-half, is it a signal he recognised they didn’t have the legs to go toe-to-toe for 70 minutes?
TONY LEEN (Irish Examiner sports editor): If bringing in trainer Donie Buckley has made one self-evident difference, it’s the physicality and intensity Kerry now bring to tackling. See how Anthony Maher dislodged possession from Graham Canty and even Darran O’Sullivan forced a Cork spill from Alan O'Connor — both in the first half. It’s high intensity and demanding stuff, and perhaps on such a warm day Kerry flagged physically in the second period. However, I genuinely think Kerry’s second-half problems were more psychological. Once Declan O’Sullivan put them nine points ahead, they went into holding mode. That’s fine so long as you’re not conceding too many scores — once Cork got the penalty, Kerry were going backwards at a rate of knots and couldn’t arrest the slide.
EAMONN FITZMAURICE (Irish Examiner columnist/Kerry U21 manager): They have to be very happy with the way things are shaping up. There is a freshness about the team this year that should bode well for Croke Park. They will be very careful in the next four weeks however. This phase without a game and disrupted by county championship games is very dangerous. It will be important to get the balance right.
JOHN FOGARTY (Irish Examiner GAA correspondent): There’s no doubt Donie Buckley has them sharper. Aidan Walsh and Paudie Kissane were also forced into kicking the silliest of passes in the first-half. The thing is you can’t keep that pressure on for the full 70 minutes and on a bigger surface like Croke Park it will be made all the more difficult.
FINTAN O’TOOLE (Irish Examiner sports writer): Donncha Walsh alluded in yesterday’s match programme to the difference that Buckley has made in improving their tackling in terms of body positioning. Benefits definitely seen in the first-half. Not sure if their second-half problems were all psychological, I definitely think they ran out of gas. The second-half was when Kerry needed a strong bench to utilise so they could shut this game down. They didn’t have that yesterday but with Galvin, Tomas Ó Sé and possibly Tommy Griffin back by the time of the quarter-finals, that panel should be in good shape.
JOHN FOGARTY: We saw Kerry play a different type of football in the second-half as much as Cork were bound to come into it. They attempted more long kicks into the full-forward line with the wind but found Cork were closing them down a lot more.
TERRY REILLY: On that full-forward line, there was a lot of talk about Gooch in the build up but once again he was upstaged by Declan O’Sullivan, is he the most important player on this Kerry team?
TONY LEEN: For me, undoubtedly — and it’s something I’ve been saying for years. Declan O’Sullivan is the standout all-round footballer in this country, and has been for some time. Colm Cooper is the marquee name, the magician who will have his audience oohing an aaying with scores, dummies and shows of skill. But if I had €20m and was told I could only have one player for that money, I’m going with Declan every time. He can play anywhere, never spills or wastes a ball, can carry, tackle, and shoot off left and right. Physically he’s so powerful — he’s got a pair of tree trunks for legs.
EAMONN FITZMAURICE: Kerry are lucky in that up front they have a variety of top top players. They can afford to have one of their main men operating below their optimum as usually someone else will pick up the slack. Yesterday Declan O’Sullivan was the man but next day it could be Gooch, or Darran O’Sullivan or Donaghy or Paul Galvin. In fairness to Gooch he still contributed yesterday, just maybe not at his usual stratospheric level.
JOHN FOGARTY: I wouldn’t necessarily agree with Tony. Colm Cooper had a much stickier marker on him yesterday. O’Sullivan was on Canty and Miskella, two guys who as man-markers are no Michael Shields. Cooper won’t have as quiet a game the next day. Having said that, Declan O’Sullivan was in excellent form yesterday. That blip in his career a few years back when he appeared to be bordering on getting sent off game after game is long gone.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Importance of Declan O’Sullivan definitely illustrated yesterday, class act that Cork couldn’t handle in the first-half. Cork got one match up right with Shields on Cooper, the St Finbarr’s man doing a really good job on him. The problem was it took them until the second-half to get the rest of their defence in order. Too late at that stage.
TERRY REILLY: What happened Cork’s supposed overwhelming advantage in midfield and why did they persist with that short kick-out strategy?
TONY LEEN: I have no clue. Niall Cahalane suggested in his Examiner column today that they were caught in a double bluff by Kerry. I asked Conor Counihan afterwards and he was very fuzzy about the kick out thing. Bottom line? It wasn’t not feeding their midfield that caught Cork, it was the turnovers from the short kick-outs that hurt them — they translated into three points, the deficit at the final whistle.
JOHN FOGARTY: If Kerry and Cork do come up against one another again this year, Canty has to be in half-back line. Jamie O’Sullivan and Paudie Kissane now under the most pressure from Eoin Cotter and Eoin Cadogan.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Second-half showed where Cork can hurt other teams, O’Connor and O’Neill lorded the aerial exchanges. They didn’t get that chance in the first-half.
JOHN FOGARTY: The double-bluff argument is spot-on from Niall. But Kerry dipped into a bit of that themselves, warming up Galvin when he wasn’t even part of the panel.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: Cotter a real option now for corner-back in Cork team although I wouldn’t blame O’Sullivan too much for first-half yesterday. Quality of ball being fed into Kieran O’Leary was outstanding and little that O’Sullivan could do. Problems were further out the field for Cork early on.
JOHN FOGARTY: Still feel O’Leary had the legs on O’Sullivan.
TERRY REILLY: Canty was also badly exposed in the first-half and you can’t help thinking that any manager looking in will have identified the full-back line as a serious weakness in the Cork defence. What’s the solution for Conor Counihan?
TONY LEEN: Well to his credit Canty did better in the half-back line in the second-half. His exposure in the first-half was another Jack O’Connor gem. Himself, Ger O’Keeffe, Alan O’Sullivan, Donie Buckley and Diarmuid Murphy are excellent at getting match-ups spot on. Jack said afterwards they knew whoever had to follow Declan O’Sullivan into full-back wouldn’t be comfortable and he was right. The only thing is that this will bring Canty on. People need to remember he’s been desperately short of serious match practice in 2011. His legs didn’t fail him, it was the lack of sharpness he was missing. In fairness to Counihan, the Douglas duo of Cadogan and Cotter did well in the second-half, but in reality Kerry were no longer on the front foot anyway at that stage.
EAMONN FITZMAURICE: I’m not sure. Have they got experienced personnel to put in there? They was a lot of talk last week about Cork’s panel and their strength and depth. At half-time yesterday I was looking at their options to change things around. Yes they have a few players like Fintan Goold and Fiachra Lynch but I’m not buying the strength in-depth argument at the moment. They looked very vulnerable at the back at times particularly in the first-half. Much has been made of Kerry’s ageing back line but Canty, O’Leary, Miskella and Kissane are no spring chickens either. It definitely is a cause for concern for Counihan.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: As for Cadogan, he is vital for the footballers but what about a potential clash on July 23/24 with round four of the football qualifiers and possibly an All-Ireland SHC quarter-final.
JOHN FOGARTY: We’ll know more after the weekend coming whether Cadogan’s dual commitments will cause problems but the point at the weekend needs to be raised again — he has to choose one or the other. For Cork’s sake if not his own.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: I think yesterday showed Cadogan is needed more for the footballers than people think.
TERRY REILLY: People might forget it with the final result, but Cork’s comeback was pretty impressive and they never looked like panicking. They lacked a bit of composure and kicked some bad wides but will they be quietly happy?
TONY LEEN: Sunday night and Monday, they’ll have felt bad. Come Tuesday they’re already thinking about three weeks’ hence and the All-Ireland series. Losing to Kerry in Páirc Uí Chaoimh last year was a serious blow but I seem to remember Cork dancing a September jig in the rain in Croke park. It’s a cliché but you always learn more from a loss. Can’t for the life of me understand why Aidan Walsh was on the 40 in the second-half. Walsh is a midfielder or nothing for me. One other small detail which Trevor Giles, who was sitting beside me, alluded to. With Goulding going so well on the frees, why didn’t he take the one from in front of the goals that Donncha O’Connor missed after half-time. That could have been crucial. I think Cork may have to look at Jamie O’Sullivan. He seems to struggles with the movement of a small skilful corner forward. Maybe he was selected Sunday for his height in the full-back line, but Kieran O’Leary had him well beaten.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: There’s a selection issue there for the management with Walsh, considering how well O’Neill and O’Connor did as a midfield combination in the second-half. O’Neill charged through the Kerry defence and carried ball at will in the second-half. Has not done that as well since 2009. If Cork can get their middle eight configured correctly, they’ll challenge strongly. The full-forward line scored 1-9 between them yesterday, Kerrigan in particular showed what a threat he can be in the second-half. But that line was largely unemployed in the first-half and serviced poorly.
JOHN FOGARTY: They will take positives from fighting back once again. They were down by seven to Dublin and won the game, they were nine points in arrears yesterday and brought it back to the bare minimum. But why are they getting themselves in these situations? It happened with Down in the final last year when their sheer brute force won them the second-half and the game but it’s a risky policy expecting second-halves to win you games. The argument for Counihan sitting in the stands in the first-half is an All-Ireland and all these great second-half displays but they can’t keep starting so slowly.
TERRY REILLY: Have Kerry played their card for Croke Park a bit early?
TONY LEEN: Doubtful. They still have Seamus Scanlon, Paul Galvin and Tomás Ó Sé to come back into the frame. And the one thing Jack emphasised yesterday is that they will learn from last year in relation to the training programme in the four-week break this time. Plus Croke Park come August and September is Gooch time. This was one they needed to win not in the context of the All-Ireland Championship, but in the context of local psychological oneupmanship. It would have been a massive feather in Cork’s cap to win in Killarney. So if beating them sows a little seed of doubt in Cork minds for the Croke Park series, it’s a good day’s work.
EAMONN FITZMAURICE: Kerry can still improve and they will need to. When Jack and the lads break this game down they will move on from it pretty fast. In reality they only played for 25-30 minutes. They did not score for 36 minutes of the second-half. A nine-point lead became a one-point lead with a couple of minutes they go. They will look to tweak and improve things again for the next day out.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: They have showed that their hunger and football class remains and the panel will get stronger as the year goes on. But the lack of staying power in the second-half will be something Jack will want to address. They made some really basic errors, just like Cork did in the first-half, in terms of coughing up possession.
JOHN FOGARTY: Tommy Griffin is also a viable jack-of-all-trades option be it in defence or in midfield. He’ll be fully fit in four weeks. Kerry have experienced men coming back into the fold but unless Paul Galvin is fully fit and flying in training the attack won’t be touched. Kerry seemed more content on protecting the lead in the second-half too as much as they ran out of a bit of steam.
TERRY REILLY: Who’s got the advantage if they meet again?
TONY LEEN: Well if Cork had won yesterday, they most certainly would have. Now I think it’s pretty even. Kerry will take a shot of confidence from that win, but the second-half will bring a dose of perspective and remind them that Cork’s biggest tool is the way they physically grind teams down. It wasn’t brilliant football that cut into Kerry’s lead in the second-half yesterday — it was through the pure dint of physical strength and power from the likes of Canty, Alan O’Connor and Pearse O’Neill.
JOHN FOGARTY: Someone said yesterday Cork haven’t beaten Kerry in 15 away championship games. Remarkable statistic. The sheer power and strength that won them an All-Ireland last year. I still feel Cork want to show they’ve evolved from that. They got a bloody nose yesterday but they’re still standing and in the last 12. Lessons will have to be learned but they’re a team who can spring from this slight setback providing Counihan gets the selections and matches right.
FINTAN O’TOOLE: One setback for Cork could be the absence of Ciaran Sheehan with a knee injury for that last 12 clash. Also plenty debate about club games now over next week and the Cork U21 hurlers match on Friday, July 15.
JOHN FOGARTY: A Cork attack without Colm O’Neill and Ciarán Sheehan is certainly a weakened one.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/7LV-9cyG0j0/post.aspx
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