#TheToughest Issue: Have Cork missed their chance to beat Kerry?

Cork probably should have beaten Kerry on Sunday, but Fionn Fitzgerald's last-gasp point meant they had to be content with a draw. Has their chance gone?

Conán Doherty says: YES I'd feel less like Cork had missed the boat if they didn't look like it themselves. In the aftermath of what was a scintillating performance on Sunday, one where they defied the critics, brought the Kingdom to its knees and announced their arrival back firmly amongst the big dogs, the Cork players lay strewn across the plains of Killarney as if they had left something behind. They had - of course they had - they deserved to win the match and they did everything to Kerry at the weekend but beat them. But they didn't exactly inspire confidence that there was a genuine belief there that the job would just be finished the next day out. Cork absolutely dominated Kerry in the second half of the Munster final. They stood on their throats and they said 'no more'. Ultimately, they were undone by an elementary mistake and a harsh penalty that handed the old enemy six points. Even still, they should've won. But a corner back's last throw of the dice from 40 yards off the top of his laces denied the Rebels the win that their lung-bursting performance so deserved. So to see the dejection coursing through the side as if they had missed their last chance was somewhat telling. Alan O'Connor's man-mountain of a display reduced to a bowed head, selectors following him with almost a sense of self pity, team mates being consoled, Brian Cuthbert off remonstrating with the referee. It just wasn't the mark of a side who had gotten the measure of the All-Ireland champions. It was the look of a team who felt they just caught Kerry on an off-day. In the build-up to the game, we looked at how Kerry would play right into Cork's strength: their running game. And, sure enough, all three Rebel goals were derived from the hosts leaving their men one-on-one with the red jerseys and those red jerseys running straight at the Kerry backs with no respect for them, no fear. The idea that Kerry could handle that running power man on man was ludicrous. It was arrogant. But even when the champions tried to shut up shop and close out the last seven minutes with a mass defence, they were lazy, weak, and they were punished. But Kerry were largely naive and they won't leave the gate open for the enemy to waltz right through it the next day. It wasn't even a sense of that they had underestimated the opposition. More that Kerry had overestimated themselves. To think they could leave Colm O'Neill man on man on the inside line. To think that they could push up on Cork's backs, run with their runners, beat them individually. Beat them the Kerry Way. It took Eamonn Fitzmaurice to come in last season and finally rubbish that notion. It took him to break up what was a five-year drought in the south west without Sam. He did it by tearing up the floor boards. By recognising the way the game had gone. By doing what was necessary in each of their challenges and by setting his team up physically and strategically for modern day football. Adapt or die. After reaching the top though, his team have almost fallen back into bad habits and their game with Cork is probably the best thing that could've happened to them. Fitzmaurice will never be in a stronger position in his management rein than he will be in the next 10 days with his panel. They've had their warning shot, now listen the hell up. Had they been allowed to saunter through Munster and play as casually in the quarter finals or so, they would've been caught and they would've had no second chance. Kerry now have a second chance and you can be damn sure that, come July 18, they will be wired in. They will respect Cork and they will respect what their manager has asked them to do - not pay it lip service like the last day. Someone once asked me why I thought Dublin would win the All-Ireland this year. I replied: "Because they didn't win it last year." Why do I think Kerry will win the Munster final next week? Because they didn't win it last week. And, unfortunately, some of the Cork players look like they think the same. Conor Heneghan of JOE.ie says: NO There were a few Kerry people who urged caution before the meeting with Cork on Sunday, but despite what Darragh Ó'Sé and his cohorts have said since, it was hard to know whether or not to take any of them seriously. The 'cute hoor' card is probably one that is overplayed in relation to Kerry, but, then again, how can you trust people from a county who make beating the likes of Waterford and Clare sound like a tough challenge on an annual basis? "Yerrah, we knew it was going to be a tough game and that's the way it turned out," a Killian Young or a Bryan Sheehan will say after a 19-point Kerry victory in the Munster Championship, while somehow keeping a straight face. Cork are, of course, different from every other team in Munster, but while the squad did their best to distance themselves from Tomás Ó'Sé's comments, in reality, most Kerry people were thinking along the same lines and expected the Rebels to roll over to the Kingdom once more. After what happened at the weekend, they won't be so sure of themselves going into the replay. Cork went into the game under serious scrutiny and probably deservedly so, but all the focus on Cork meant that it was diverted away from Kerry and Eamonn Fitzmaurice will have been posed some serious questions following his team's display in Killarney. The accepted wisdom at the start of this season was that Kerry could only get better than they were when they won the All-Ireland title. The Gooch would be back. Tommy Walsh was home from Australia. Paul Galvin was out of retirement. And the young fellas that had gone all the way in 2014 would carry themselves with the demeanour of All-Ireland Champions and be even better than they were before. Things rarely work out as you expect them to, however and Kerry's biggest problem was barely talked about during the spring, much less resolved; their defence. Much has been made of Mayo's capacity to concede goals but has anyone asked the same question of the Kingdom? They conceded three on Sunday and two against Tipperary earlier in the Munster Championship. During the league, they conceded nine goals in seven games. They let in two against Galway in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final and four in two games against Mayo in the semis. Out of necessity, they tightened up against Donegal in the final but they've still let in 11 majors in their last six Championship encounters. Winning an All-Ireland tends to spare you from the criticism a stat like that would normally receive, but you can be damn sure that Eamonn Fitzmaurice is well aware of it. There are concerns in other areas for Kerry too. They were cleaned out of it of midfield for large parts of the game. Gooch clearly needs a bit of time to get back to himself and understandably so; you don't just suddenly retain your mantle as the best footballer in the game after an injury as serious as he had. Their half-forward line is lacking in creative and heavy scoring ability and it will be asking a lot of Kieran Donaghy to have the same impact he did in the latter stages of last year's Championship. Will Kerry solve all of those problems for a tilt at Sam this year? Probably, this is Kerry after all, but they won't find Cork as willing to bend over as they have been in previous years. In my mind and in the mind of analysts with a far superior football intellect than mine, Cork had the players to contend for titles but needed to sort out a few glaring problems. They needed a dominant figure at midfield. They found that the solution from two years ago, Alan O'Connor, still works today. They needed leaders. O'Connor, Michael Shields, Donncha O'Connor, Paddy Kelly, Mark Collins and Colm O'Neill all stood up to be counted. They needed an injection of life into a panel that's grown very familiar-looking in recent years. The O'Driscoll brothers, particularly Barry, and young Stephen Cronin provided just that. Only a Cork victory in the replay, or another stirring performance at least, will provide evidence as to whether Brian Cuthbert's men have developed a backbone, but the signs are hugely promising. Kerry will argue that they have far more scope for improvement from the replay, but unless they sort out some of their main deficiencies and fast, Cork should capitalise on their vulnerability and sense that they have them on the ropes. All they need now is to deliver the knockout blow.

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