Kerry brought Jack O’Connor back to reclaim Sam Maguire but Jack looks to still have some issues to iron out before he can clutch Sam.
It is nothing out of the ordinary for the often self-proclaimed star artisans of the big ball game to be off the boil in the early summer months, indeed it would probably have worried their adoring fans had they excelled against Cork on Sunday as in recent years with Kerry, the tradition has been the dodgier they start, the better they finish.
Certainly that was the case in 2006 and 2007 and if he wants to lead the county to a third All-Ireland crown in four years and fifth this decade, O’Connor will hope that remains the case. Because on Sunday they were patchy, looked disinterested at times, and in truth played with several areas of the pitch in need of addressing – at least for the majority.
While they played a division below Kerry in the NFL this year there was never much doubt that Cork were going to give them a bigger test in the heat of championship football than any of the sides they cantered past in regaining the league title from Derry. O’Connor was out to use the extent of his panel over the course of the league and, while injuries have had to be catered for, Sunday seemed to indicate that that all left him with more answers than questions.
Starting at the back, a flurry of questions still remain over a full back line that has been a worry long before O’Connor’s return. If anything this part of the team was not attacked in the way it might have been by Cork - that despite the early introduction from the bench of the giant Michael Cussen, who made Kerry’s back line look so ordinary all year. The jury is very much out though.
The decision to start Aidan O’Mahony at seven rather than six, where Tommy Griffin was applied, also looked misjudged as Pearse O’Neill found a succession of avenues for attack early on and that was switched around continuously until Cork’s threat died towards the death, Tomás Ó Sé as so often the pick of the Kerry back six.
Midfield, another question mark ahead of the game, saw much change. The starting pair of debutant Tadhg Kennelly and the broad but weak (on the day at least) Michael Quirke quickly saw change with the AFL returnee pushed further forward after Tommy Walsh’s unfortunate injury. That saw Darragh Ó Sé brought in amid Killarney crowd cheers and later Quirke was dispatched for the impressive David Moran, leaving what finished in the middle to be much more appealing to those fans with green and gold shirts than what had started.
Not that Kennelly did not fare decently on his first championship appearance, the former Sydney Swan rounding off a solid first day with a great point that was part of the late comeback that left the Rebels floored. In and around him the Kerry attack was lacking its usual bite and, by the time he joined them in the front six, its usual height.
With Kieran Donaghy already ruled out, the early loss of fellow giant Walsh to an ankle knock robbed last year’s All-Ireland runners-up of their most famed method of attack. Without the big men, much pressure was on little man ‘Gooch’ Cooper to take charge of the scoring, but like this team in several seasons gone by he took a while to get going shocking everyone with his missed penalty kick.
But it did all come right for him in the end, a couple of decent scores followed up by an almost effortless equaliser – poor marking notwithstanding - to complete Kerry's initial comeback from five points down before the late trading of a score each.
If anything it was the use of their benches by both managers that sealed the draw. Conor Counihan seemed almost too quick to bring on certain men, certainly things had been going well for his team before Cussen came on and that change seemed a little odd at that time in the game. Other changes, granted, were spurred by knocks or in Ger Spillane’s case it had not been the player’s day. All that said, young Colm O’Neill proved he was ready for the big time with that super late 45.
For O’Connor, meanwhile, everyone he threw on from the bench did their job well. Ó Sé, coming back from plenty of criticism, made a mark on the game early on with a point and contributed well to Kerry’s late dominance. Moran alongside him should have played his way into the starting XV, while Tommy Walsh’s brother Barry John caused his share of commotion to the Cork defence to make brother and father alike proud.
And also introduced was Bryan Sheehan, a man who struggles these days to get on the team but who is as good if not better than any free-taker in the country. And in the end he was the real difference, topping the Kingdom scoring charts with 0-5 and bagging the vital late equaliser.
Despite his team’s deflating late collapse, you have to feel Cork boss Counihan will be the more sure of his starting team for Saturday’s replay, with minimal change expected, though Paddy Kelly, in particular, and Paul Kerrigan will need to offer a little more in attack if they stay unchanged.
The Kerry side is likely to see a little more shake-up. Ó Sé and Moran may start in the midfield, there should be a few positional twitches and captain Darran O’Sullivan could yet find himself forced out in attack.
Whatever team he picks, O’Connor can be glad of the replay as for a large part of the second half, with a missed penalty gone before, it looked like Kerry were not going to get a second chance. As already mentioned, starting slowly is nothing new to them but now more than ever they will not want the long haul of the qualifiers as they try and dethrone the Tyrone side that downed them last September.
This replay can only help this evolving Kerry team settle. Then again, Cork will not surely make the same mistake twice if they are given the chance. For my money they have every bit as much chance as the Kingdom of being in Croke Park on final day this year, but they will be gutted to have let their perennial foes back in with a shout of taking Munster back. After both sides drifted in and out at different stages in the original game, Saturday’s face-off is there for who wants it most.