Rebels salvage dramatic draw

Kerry		Cork
	1-13 - 3-7

Resilience has not been one of Cork’s traits against Kerry in recent years, not when it came to Croke Park, where they have been torn apart without a whimper in every clash over the last three years.

This All-Ireland semi-final was looking no different as full-time approached. Battered physically and intellectually during the second half, Cork were six points down when James Masters cropped up in the square to punch the ball to the net. It looked like a spurious consolation for Cork, a goal which would ensure a narrow defeat to stand in commendation against the hammerings of the past.

All-Ireland SFC semi-final: Cork 3-7 Kerry 1-13

And then the unthinkable happened. Graham Canty found himself in the box with the ball. Hustling to keep possession, he escaped from one Kerry defender, and was hit by a challenge from another and referee Joe McQuillan awarded the penalty, converted by John Hayes to resurrect Cork for the second time this season.

Even after the penalty, Killian Young hit the upright with the last kick of the game, and Cork had survived, again, barely. It was the breathless ending this poor, temperamental game scarcely deserved. And so Kerry’s three-in-a-row ambitions are on hiatus.

Cork opened the scoring two minutes in, Donncha O’Connor landing a free from close range after Daniel Goulding’s good jinking run gave Marc O’Sé twisted blood and led to him being dragged down. Within a minute Kerry were level, Darragh O’Sé’s unchallenged run from midfield winning a free which Colm Cooper converted.

Another Cooper free put Kerry ahead on nine minutes, by which time their successes and failures were gaining clarity. Darragh O’Sé and Séamus Scanlon were stamping all over Cork in the middle of the park, Cork players rarely winning the ball in the air. But Kerry also hit some desperately poor wides in that same period, Tommy Walsh and Bryan Sheehan guilty of some awful misses. By the ten minute mark they had stolen four Cork kick-outs, but hit four wides too.

Thirteen minutes in, the game shifted in Cork’s favour against the tide of Kerry possession. Michael Cussen beat Marc O’Sé to the ball, turned around him, and laid off to Pearse O’Neill who was steaming through the centre. O’Neill drew Murphy in the Kerry goal before handpassing to Goulding, who finished to the empty net.

The advantage lasted less than a minute. Kerry won the kick-out, and a huge bombed pass found its way towards Donaghy, who batted down to Cooper on the edge of the square. Cooper passed back to Donaghy, who fisted the ball past Alan Quirke to put Kerry back in front, 1-2 to 1-1. A minute later Donaghy pointed after Cork lost another kick-out, and Tommy Walsh added another on 16 minutes to stretch the lead to three, hauled back by another Goulding free. 

Overrun in midfield, Cork boss Conor Counihan replaced Alan O’Connor with Nicholas Murphy on 21 minutes. The surgery had some effect, as Cork began to retain more ball as the half progressed.

They were equal to some of the game’s most crucial battles too – Derek Kavanagh making life difficult for Donaghy, while Diarmuid Duggan followed Tommy Walsh around like a leech. Up front, Cussen was 50/50 with Marc O’Sé, with Goulding and O’Connor finding space working with the scraps from further down the field. Still, Kerry nearly added a second goal on 23 minutes, Donaghy breaking the ball for fellow tower Walsh, whose low shot on goal was turned around brilliantly by Quirke at his left post. Sheehan converted the 65.

Kerry had a goal disallowed on 26 minutes when Tommy Walsh was adjudged to have thrown the ball to Donncha Walsh before he finished it. Cork, for all their failings, were still lingering, and O’Connor added two points from play to leave them a point behind at the break. Two statistics stood out at the end of the half – Kerry had stolen or hampered eight of Cork’s kickouts, but hit nine wides at the same time. 

And then it turned ugly. The first half had seen a minor amount of surface tension, small-scale squaring up and minor dragging interrupting the game at various intervals. Whatever the reasons, everything fell apart in the second half.

Cooper had put Kerry two points ahead with a free a minute after the restart. It was the last semblance of normality in the match as a minute later, Darragh O’Sé was sent off. Donaghy was pulled out of the forward line to fill the new hole in midfield, Kerry playing with a two-man forward line.

The extra man did Cork no favours however. Tommy Walsh and Sheehan both hit points to stretch Kerry’s advantage to comfortable levels, as Nicholas Murphy replied to keep Cork in touch.

Level in personnel again after Donncha O'Connor was red carded, Kerry continued to dominate. Cussen was near-invisible for Cork up front, while the All-Ireland champions were finding gaps easier to come by in their opponents defence. Sub Eoin Brosnan punched the ball over from close range after skinning his marker, and Kerry, despite continuing to rack up wides, were six points ahead.

Brosnan could have killed the game completely on 62 minutes - put clean through, his weak effort on goal was saved by Quirke on his near post. Still, when Tomas Ó’Sé finished a gut-bursting run with a good finish, and turned away, fists pumping in celebration, Cork’s death warrant looked sealed, and Sheehan added to the lead with another free five minutes from time.

Miskella and John Hayes hit what looked like consolation points as normal time ticked into injury time. And then Masters struck. He seemed to be in the square as he rose to punch a high ball home. No matter. Three points in it with two minutes of injury time to play. Could it happen again? Yes it could. Hayes showed the coolest head on a strange day when he stepped up to send the penalty home. Kerry have it all to do, for a third time.

Cork: A Quirke; D Duggan, D Kavanagh, A Lynch; J Miskella, G Spillane, K O’Connor; A O’Connor, P O’Neill; D O’Connor, G Canty, S O’Brien; D Goulding, M Cussen, J Hayes.

Scorers for Cork: J Hayes (1-1, 1f), D O’Connor (0-4, 2f), D Goulding (1-0), J Masters (1-0), N Murphy (0-1), J Miskella (0-1)

Subs: N Murphy for A O’Connor (‘21), K McMahon for S O’Brien (’46), J Masters for D Goulding (’55), N O’Leary for K O’Connor (’57), M Shields for G Spillane (’59)

Kerry: D Murphy; M O’Sé, T Griffin, T O'Sulivan; T O’Sé, A O’Mahony, K Young; D O’Sé, S Scanlon; B Sheehan, C Cooper, D Walsh; D O’Sullivan, K Donaghy, T Walsh.

Scorers for Kerry: K Donaghy (1-1), B Sheehan (0-4, 3f), C Cooper (0-3, 2f), T Walsh (0-2), T O’Sé (0-1), Eoin Brosnan (0-1), Darren O’Sullivan (0-1) 

Subs: E Brosnan for D Walsh (HT), Darren O’Sullivan for T Walsh (’56), Sean O’Sullivan for Declan O’Sullivan (’67).

Attendance: 35,137