1. Kerry relief after win
The relief in the Kerry camp was palpable.
They knew the pressure around them had spiked in the wake of their limp display against Mayo last time out. That opening group stage defeat ended the county’s proud home championship record that stretched back to 1995. A response was essential with their trip to Páirc Uí Chaoimh and that boiled down to securing a win.
Achieving that prime objective will have pleased Jack O’Connor. The sparkling early form of Sean O’Shea, the greater defensive security offered by Paul Murphy’s clever positioning and the fact that Shane Ryan did not have to bail his team-mates out again with shot-stopping heroics after the team was cut apart, all those facets of the game were pluses.
They have not hit full speed yet. Their second-half display was error-strewn as they coughed up possession, struggled to string together more scores and picked up five yellow cards as Cork ran hard at them. But this was a game where winning was what mattered.
“Today wasn’t about champagne football,” surmised Jack O’Connor.
“It wasn’t about polished performances. It was about digging in and being better defensively than we were against Mayo. I thought there was huge pressure on our fellas to perform today. And it didn’t matter how we got over the line. We just needed to get over the line and get those two points.”
2. Cork improvement
For Cork this performance was a step up overall from what they produced twelve months ago and within the game from what they produced in the first half. To that wider point first. Blitzed by a merciless Kerry showing in 2021, they made a decent fist of competing for two-thirds of their 2022 meeting in Páirc Uí Rinn before fading away.
Saturday saw a more sustained showing, a team with the stamina to keep charging until the end and stay within a score of their more illustrious opponents. John Cleary noted afterwards that correcting the drop-offs in the last quarter that characterised last year’s losses to Kerry and Dublin, had been a target for their winter work.
They needed that second-half push after the flaws in their first-half showing, noticeably in attack. They doubled their scoring output after the break, 0-10 to the opening blast of five, and were boosted by a major impact off the bench in the combined 0-4 from Eoghan McSweeney and Steven Sherlock.
But shortcomings popped up. Their forward play was laboured in the opening period, the wind heightening a hesitation to shoot. They finished with 15 scores from 24 shots. Six wides (including three frees) and three dropped short, proved costly on a day when a high conversion rate was needed to spring a shock.
3. Another Clifford scoring show
It may seem simplistic to again highlight another David Clifford scoring show but the frequency of these displays cannot dilute the significance again of the Fossa man’s input on Saturday. He opened Championship 2023 with two pointed frees against Tipperary but has been firing since with 2-6 against Clare, 0-8 against Mayo and now 1-5 against Cork. His last three games have delivered 2-11 from play.
That all occurs despite close defensive attention. Daniel O’Mahony had a terrific duel with Clifford on Saturday, executing two brilliant turnovers in the first half. But when Kerry needed their main man, he stepped up. The best point of the game when he walloped one over in the 30th minute, the goal calmly registered from that debatable 47th minute penalty and then when only three Kerry points were notched in the final quarter, he struck two of them.
Sean O’Shea and Paudie Clifford were central to the pulling of attacking strings in the first half but their influence was negated thereafter. With Kerry in desperate need of offensive inspiration, their maestro delivered again.
