Cork Surrender Title To Kerry In Classic Final

Munster SFC Final
Kerry 1-15
Cork 1-13

By Dermot Kavanagh

In one of the best finals in modern times Cork rather unluckily surrendered their title to Kerry by a slender two-point margin at Killarney on Sunday.

Curiously, considering Kerry's successes of recent times, Sunday's win was their first Munster final win over Cork at Killarney since 1986. This game contained all the elements that can make championship football almost compulsive viewing.

Two highly trained, highly committed talented teams fought to the bitter end in pursuit of victory. While the opening stages of the game were somewhat pedestrian, once the teams settled in and familiarised themselves with the breezy conditions it was all systems go in an engrossing contest.

Cork won the toss and played with the advantage of the strong breeze. However it then took them about 15 minutes to use the elements to their advantage, by which time Kerry had settled in too and started playing a shrewd tactical game.

Nonetheless Cork engineered some good scores and, considering their unimpressive start, would have gone to the dressing rooms at the break quite satisfied by the 0-9 to 0-7 lead.

Kerry were smart enough to realise that the breeze advantage alone would not win the game for them.

As early as the 36th minute they scored their first point from a Russell free. They then scored a further 1-4 without reply from Cork and, with a lead of five points, looked home and clear with 20 minutes remaining.

Kerry's goal came about through a typical piece of opportunism from local hero Colin Cooper who availed himself of a slip by two Cork defenders to raise the green flag.

To Cork's credit they got back into the game and when Donnacha O'Connor followed two unanswered points with a brilliant goal the sides were level at 1-12 apiece with only 10 minutes remaining.

With the quality of the play now of the height standard both teams exchanged points to keep the scores level with only minutes remaining.

The momentum was now with Cork however and, amidst high tension, they came raiding from all angles. Only strong defending by the Kerry defence kept their line intact.

Practically on the full-time whistle, a good Cork move saw team captain Derek Kavanagh gain possession on the edge of the square with several options open to him.

Kavanagh took the least favourable one and blasted the ball just outside the post and wide. That his jersey was clearly called as he kicked the ball didn't help, but the missed opportunity will haunt him for many a long winter's night.

Before Cork could recover from the shock of Kavanagh's miss, Kerry swept down the field from the kick off and, following some intricate interplay between the forwards, Kieran Donaghy curled a mighty kick from the left side between the posts for the winner.

Sean O'Sullivan's late point just about confirmed Kerry's slight dominance.

While Kerry deserved the win, Cork will regret not making better use of their tall full forward, the 6' 7'' Michael Cussen during the wind assisted first half, when he had Kerry's full-back Tom O'Sullivan in serious trouble any time the high ball tactic was used.

All Kerry's big guns performed to their best, as indeed they had to as this was a seriously competent Cork team.

For them, it's now on to the qualifiers and if they continue their progression one would not bet against another battle with Kerry in September.

Referee Michael Duffy (from Sligo) had a reasonable debut at a Munster final, but he will not relish looking at the video replay of the clear foul on Kavanagh as the Cork captain sized up his options in the last minute.