By Rory Gallagher
It's certainly not the final pairing too many would have predicted at the start of the year, but I've a feeling we could be in for an All-Ireland final between Cork and Kerry that will be remembered for all the right reasons this time.
I always felt Kerry had a very good opportunity to get this far, even when they were playing badly. There were never any of those games I thought they were going to lose. Most people thought that Tyrone would nail Cork in the semi-finals, but they've been coming good all year and it's not a huge shock to see them at this stage.
Cork have been here before, and the memories are far from good. No matter what, psychologically they have a lot of scars from previous meetings with Kerry at Croke Park. Anthony Lynch, Graham Canty, Nicholas Murphy and John Miskella have all been around for quite a few years and they've taken some serious beatings, totally outplayed on four or five occasions. They can say that last year they were level with a few minutes to go, but they had been nine points down in that semi-final as well.
They haven't been able to stop Kerry playing football the way they have been able to in Munster. They haven't been able to turn it into a dogfight. Kerry have always managed to get away from them pretty easily.
I don't believe it's the pitch, or the occasion or anything else. I think it's just been the case that on each occasion, Kerry had better players for them, and that they had come on over the summer more than Cork every time since their Munster meetings.
Cork under Billy Morgan got to semi-finals and finals, but they just didn't have the necessary quality to beat Kerry by the time September came around. Up until this year, I didn't think at any stage that Cork were a top three team.
They've gone into the final this year in the best possible way, by beating Tyrone. It was a true test to them, they stood up to it and came through.
They took on Tyrone in every aspect. Credit to Conor Counihan, I think he completely outfoxed Tyrone and Mickey Harte in a lot of what they did. Take the kickouts for example. Tyrone had a plan in place for Cork bombing the kickouts far out the field, but instead they played as many as they possibly could short. It threw Tyrone, and Cork reaped the rewards. They worked hard, overlapped and stopped Tyrone in the areas where they were strongest, namely the Tyrone half-back line.
The one area where I'd fear for Cork, and if I was Jack O'Connor I'd be considering very carefully, is the damage that Kieran Donaghy can do.
With Donaghy there's the potential for two goals, whether he scores them or wins possession inside the square for someone else to finish. That's the one big fear for Cork... how do they deal with that? They don't have a player capable of dealing with Donaghy. Michael Shields doesn't have the height to deal with him.
If I was Jack O'Connor, if he was any way fit at all, I'd have Donaghy in there.
What you have with Kerry now is a reasonably settled side. You can pick the goalkeeper, the six defenders and the two midfielders, and there's only one or two possible changes up front. They have Aidan O'Mahony to come off the bench, but what I see as their weak link is a lack of pace around the middle of the field. Micheal Quirke can come in, but he's not going to change the dynamics of the game. David Moran has fallen down the pecking order, and hasn't made the progress they would have hoped.
What O'Connor has done is brought workrate into the half-forward line through Galvin and Kennelly. I'm not convinced that Kennelly is a top-class inter-county player yet, but I think he's got the potential.
Kerry have improved, they haven't been afraid to make changes when required. But there's just something not quite right about them, something that has meant they just haven't clicked yet.
They came out with serious drive against Dublin, and Dublin allowed them to play football and run riot. They won't get that against Cork. If right is right, Cork will win it because they've been the consistent team over the course of the whole season.
You can read nothing at all into the Kerry-Meath game. It was a game they were always going to win, and I think that if it had been a better day then they'd have won by another five or six points. The difference is that having beaten Tyrone, Cork know how good they are and where they're at. Kerry don't know how their form is. The Dublin game gave a false impression of where they're at, and I think there are still doubts over Kerry's form going into this final. I'd much rather be in the Cork dressing room, going in as the form team, the number one team in the country this year, and having beaten the All-Ireland champions.
I do think Cork will win by two or three points. Conor Counihan came in last year and it has taken a while, but he has now successfully remodelled the team. Billy Morgan tried to copy the northern style of football, getting men back behind the ball, but he went too far with it to the point where he had defenders and midfielders playing in the forwards.
They've now embraced 'total football' in the same way Tyrone have. They have half-forwards who are willing to work back, but who are equally as keen to get forward and be prolific in getting scores. Their half-back line are pushing up the field at all stages, and they've brought a ruthlessness and an almost Armagh and Tyrone type of aggression. They're pushing the referee to the limits at all times, and that's coming from a phenomenal hunger, being brought especially by Canty, Miskella and Murphy.
It's sheer determination and desire to win it, and I believe they can.
