Barry O’Shea
Former Kerry player, Barry O’Shea, says the home side were lucky on a Sunday to remember in Killarney…
KERRY were lucky, it was a bad call by the referee, but we’ll take it.
The penalty has been highlighted, but if you look back over the game, Padraig Hughes gave Cork some very soft frees.
Cork got about three or four 14 yard frees for innocuous enough incidents, you can pick out the penalty as a bad decision, but it wasn’t the only decision in the match that wasn’t the right call. I think when you look at the game in its entirety he wasn’t that kind to us.
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It was a hard day at the office for Peter Crowley. Photo by Dermot Crean.
The big turning point in the match was David Moran’s black card. After that Kerry totally lost the run at midfield. For about 20 minutes we couldn’t win a ball.
Cork started well, then Kerry came into it halfway through the first half, they went ahead and looked very good. In the second half they just took the foot off the pedal and Cork upped their game and started running hard.
Peter Crowley looked wrecked when he was taken off with ten minutes to go after Micheal Shields ran passed him for Cork’s third goal.
Kerry could not win a ball in midfield and I don’t think our kick outs helped us either. We spent last week talking about how strong the bench were and we got nothing really from them when it came down to it. It just shows how things can change.
Cork will be happy with their performance but they won’t be happy with the result because they deserved to win.
One thing Kerry have been good at is their tackling, but for the three goals on Sunday, Cork just ran straight through us. It was just a bad day at the office in that regard.
But look, there are positives as well. A lot of those players needed a game to bring them on. James O’Donoghue got a full match under his belt. David Moran, who has been out with a shoulder needed a game as well, so in that regard there are positives. Also any time you get a chance to redeem yourself it’s good.
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Marc O’Se coped well despite wave after wave of Cork attacks. Photo by Dermot Crean.
With limited possession, I thought Barry John Keane did very well, he was taken off in the second half, but the ball wasn’t getting into the forward line. I think management just wanted to try something different. I don’t think Barry John, did a whole pile wrong, he scored 0-3, two from play, he definitely made a positive contribution.
For the next day, I think there will be one or two changes. I would definitely think Geaney could start – instead of who is the question, but it could be Donaghy.
Fitzmaurice has shown in the past there is no one immune to losing their starting place in the team, so anything is possible. They’ll take a few days to take stock of the situation, but there will be definitely fellas fighting to keep their place on the team.
Cork looked very fit. Ex-Kerry trainer, Pat Flanagan is after making a difference in their fitness. Although I still Kerry will be favourites again – having not played well they still didn’t lose the game – they will have a lot to learn and a lot to improve on.
History has shown that if Kerry get a second chance they are a different animal.
Cork will be kicking themselves because they had the game won. If Colm O’Neill had even kicked that 45 wide they’d have probably won the game because the way midfield was going they’d have won the kickout.
It was fantastic score by Fionn Fitzgerald. In the lead up people were talking about the weakness of the full back line. I thought they did well considering the pressure they were under. The whole second half Cork dominated possession and came at Kerry in droves.
All told, it was day to remember in Killarney – massive crowd, brilliant atmosphere and hopefully we can get the same in two weeks time with a better result on the field.
