The named teams for the Munster final came our way last night. Cork are unchanged, they shouldn’t be. Kerry unsurprisingly have brought in four, but they could have made eight changes.
The Munster final replay is live on Off The Ball from Fitzgerald Stadium tomorrow night from 7pm. Liam McHale and Míchael Quirke are on commentary duty alongside Oisin Langan.
Cuthbert needs to shake it up
Cuthbert has named an unchanged side for tomorrow night from the side who started the first game against Kerry, he should definitely make one change in the half-forward line though. Drop Fintan Goold for Paddy Kelly.
In the 20th minute, Paddy Kelly came on as a blood sub for Alan O’Connor. Three minutes later Paul Kerrigan was black-carded and Kelly remained on the field as his replacement. It was Mark Collins who dropped deeper as Kelly took up Collins link-role around the half-forward line.
In the 52 minutes Paddy Kelly was on the field last weekend in Killarney he had 27 possessions. He won three breaks, and had a 100% success ratio in both his 5 kickpasses and his 17 handpasses. Nine of his passes lead to a shot on goal, while he directly assisted two of Donnchadh O’Connor’s points and was heavily involved in the build-up to his second-half goal. His influence and efficiency was key to Cork racking up 3-12 against the All-Ireland Champions.
Fintan Goold by contrast touched the ball just 12 times in his 60 minutes. A quarter of those possessions came in the five minutes before he was subbed off for Ruari Deane and it took him 11 minutes to actually get his hands on the ball at the start of the game. He started with the no.9 on his back but mostly operated in the half-forward line. Why is he needed, is it for his physicality? he made four fouls and missed three tackles. Was it for his aerial ability? He got his hands on just three of the 40 kickouts, catching two and breaking the other to Kevin O'Driscoll in the first-half Perhaps his most telling contribution was being fouled off the ball by David Moran in the 41st minute which lead to Moran being black-carded.
Paul Kerrigan should be starting for Cork, that’s a fact. His speed, work-rate and the overall threat he carries in attack is a major bonus for Cuthbert’s team. He was a big loss after his black card, but Paddy Kelly put in such a seamlessly good performance from his introduction that Kerrigan was barely missed. Kerrigan unusually started as a sweeper in a very defensive role, almost playing in front of James O’Donoghue, helping James Loughrey. And he did well there, in his 22 minutes on the field he had 9 possessions, made two successful tackles and one of his bursts from deep resulted in a score.
The defence worked well the first day, and apart from a terribly unlucky penalty decision going against them and an absolute howler from the otherwise brilliant Michael Shields, they’d have won the game. Barry O’Driscoll’s performance rattled Kerry and his running from deep which yielded 1-02 from play will have to be stopped tomorrow night.
At midfield Alan O’Connor had a huge second-half, while Kevin O’Driscoll really impressed at times with his athleticism. Donnchadh O’Connor was brilliant. Mark Collins fantastic. But Cork could definitely do with a lot more from the inside duo Brian Hurley and Colm O’Neill.
Cork: Ken O’Halloran; Michael Shields - Eoin Cadogan - James Loughrey; Barry O’Driscoll - Brian O'Driscoll - Stephen Cronin; Alan O’Connor - Fintan Goold; Paul Kerrigan - Donnchadh O'Connor - Kevin O'Driscoll; Colm O’Neill - Mark Collins - Brian Hurley.
Expect more changes from Kerry
We knew from last August that Eamon Fitzmaurice is liable to throw a spanner in the works when it comes to Championship replays. He’s made four changes and this Kerry already look like a far superior outfit that the one who scraped a draw 12 days ago.
The defence has been boosted by the addition of two man of the match nominees from last September’s All-Ireland final, but the men who lose out are big losses. Aidan O’Mahony and Paul Murphy both come in. Surprisingly though it’s Fionn Fitzgerald, the corner-back who saved Kerry with a 45-yard outside of the boot 73rd minute floated equaliser, who drops out. Peter Crowley is missing too. Crowley had made the centre-back position his own under Fitzmaurice and his physicality will be really missed.
In midfield, Anthony Maher comes in to partner David Moran. Moran was hugely influential before being black-carded the first day. After his dismissal Kerry would win just one of the eight contested kickouts in the game as Alan O’Connor bossed his way to a man of the match award.
Brian Sheehan moves to half-forward. He impressed in-play the first day, fielded one ball in the first-half over Kevin O’Driscoll’s head leading straight to a James O’Donoghue score. And in the second-half, when the tide was crashing against them he swung over a fantastic score from play under the stand on the right hand side of Fitzgerald Stadium. It’s his unerring accuracy from dead balls though that makes him rather indisposable. He kicked three fine scores (although he missed two as well), James O’Donoghue’s 65th minute ‘45 would have been slotted over though had Sheehan still been on the field.
Stephen O’Brien drops out for Sheehan as Buckley and Donnchadh Walsh remain on the wings. Up top, it’s no surprise that Paul Geaney is included. He proved in his 20 minutes on the pitch how crazy it was not to start him. He kicked a fantastic score off his left early on and would have goaled only for a finger-tip save from Ken O’Halloran. Barry-John Keane drops out.
While there would have been loud cries of ‘Why isn’t the Gooch starting’ two weeks ago, they’re a lot quieter now. Although he kicked a point from play, his contribution was next-to-nothing. He wasn’t moving freely and his limp attempt to stop Michael Shields lead directly to his man, the unmarked Barry O’Driscoll firing in Cork’s third goal.
I’m sure we’ll see him at some stage though. The same goes for Tommy Walsh, while interestingly Paul Galvin has been named in the 26 too.
Kerry: Brendan Kealy; Marc Ó Sé - Aidan O’Mahony - Shane Enright; Jonathan Lyne - Killian Young - Paul Murphy; Anthony Maher - David Moran; Johnny Buckley - Bryan Sheehan - Donnchadh Walsh; Paul Geaney - Kieran Donaghy - James O’Donoghue.
You don’t really get a second chance against Kerry do you? You shouldn’t. Recent history tells us that these two have been involved in five replays since the introduction of the qualifiers, Cork have won four. It’s going to be an enthralling tie tomorrow night and if Cork can put in a mirror performance they’ll be right in it. Kerry to win makes sense, there has to have more in them than the sloppy, lethargic performance they got away with the last day out.
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