Kerry v Cork All Ireland Final 2009

[INDIANA]

I didn't think it was that bad of a game at all. I thought the first half was great, breathless stuff. In the second I felt Kerry decided to conserve a bit of energy, invite Cork onto them an try and time their bursts when Cork hit a lull. I thought, and said, after the Tyrone game that I had noticed that Cork kicked bad wides (maybe 13) against Tyrone when they felt a bit of pressure, and it came back to haunt them yesterday. Kerry recovered very well from the blitz at the start, with Galvin, Scanlon, Kennelly, Tomás and Declan O'Sullivan getting on a lot of ball. O'Sullivan was like an orchestra conducter there for about 15-20 minutes. He never wasted a ball and was directly involved in 4 or 5 Kerry scores. Kennelly took Canty out of his comfort zone. Miskella switching back on Declan, coupled with Kerry's approach in the second half, quietened him a bit, but Miskella's contribution to this Cork team is surging forward, and the fact he couldn't really do that was a big blow. Likewise Noel O'Leary on Galvin and Canty on Kennelly. That was the winning of the game for me.

Cork's wides will haunt them, but that wasn't unexpected. They are still a formidable team, but they need to develop that unwavering focus when a game is in the melting pot. Kerry have panicked a couple of times against Tyrone in the past, but other than that they are ice. Cork need to learn from that and realise that you can hang in and tick over and the chances will come again. Then you must take them.

All in all, a great win for Kerry, and I'm delighted for them. They stuck around, rode their luck, and then made it pay. That's all you can hope for. Kennelly's interview afterwards was tough to watch, you really felt for the lad, but I'm delighted for him and his family.

The turf is saved, God is in his heaven, and Sam is in the Kingdom. Plus ca change.

The 2nd half was brutal AZ. Nearly snooze button time. Enjoyed the first half. Some of corks defenders are not that good at defending. I have a theory that defenders that attack too much can't defend properly. The best defenders only go forwards sometimes and make it count like Tomas O Se.

[full back]

Cork again showed their short-comings in a big game at CP against Kerry.
They seemed like a shadow of the team that had destroyed teams all year

Lynch played his usual game yesterday but was caught. He was constantly pulling the jersey of the Gooch & fair play to the ref for spotting it.

Jack O Connor identified weakness' on the Cork team & exploited them to the full
TBH, the 2nd half was a bit of an anti-climax with the game drifting towards an inevitable Kerry victory

[AZOffaly]

I didn't think it was that bad of a game at all. I thought the first half was great, breathless stuff. In the second I felt Kerry decided to conserve a bit of energy, invite Cork onto them an try and time their bursts when Cork hit a lull. I thought, and said, after the Tyrone game that I had noticed that Cork kicked bad wides (maybe 13) against Tyrone when they felt a bit of pressure, and it came back to haunt them yesterday. Kerry recovered very well from the blitz at the start, with Galvin, Scanlon, Kennelly, Tomás and Declan O'Sullivan getting on a lot of ball. O'Sullivan was like an orchestra conducter there for about 15-20 minutes. He never wasted a ball and was directly involved in 4 or 5 Kerry scores. Kennelly took Canty out of his comfort zone. Miskella switching back on Declan, coupled with Kerry's approach in the second half, quietened him a bit, but Miskella's contribution to this Cork team is surging forward, and the fact he couldn't really do that was a big blow. Likewise Noel O'Leary on Galvin and Canty on Kennelly. That was the winning of the game for me.

Cork's wides will haunt them, but that wasn't unexpected. They are still a formidable team, but they need to develop that unwavering focus when a game is in the melting pot. Kerry have panicked a couple of times against Tyrone in the past, but other than that they are ice. Cork need to learn from that and realise that you can hang in and tick over and the chances will come again. Then you must take them.

All in all, a great win for Kerry, and I'm delighted for them. They stuck around, rode their luck, and then made it pay. That's all you can hope for. Kennelly's interview afterwards was tough to watch, you really felt for the lad, but I'm delighted for him and his family.

The turf is saved, God is in his heaven, and Sam is in the Kingdom. Plus ca change.

The 2nd half was brutal AZ. Nearly snooze button time. Enjoyed the first half. Some of corks defenders are not that good at defending. I have a theory that defenders that attack too much can't defend properly. The best defenders only go forwards sometimes and make it count like Tomas O Se.

Not sure about that theory, but there's probably merit in it. There's few enough Tomás O'Sés in the world, and when a defender gets into a habit of bombing forward they can get really knocked back when they have to actually defend. They are out of their comfort zone. It's one thing when you are forcing your half forward to track you back up the field when you go on these surging runs looking for possession. It's another thing to be following him all over Croke Park.

The second half was poor enough, but I think that was the tactical element of it. Kerry just decided that they had to take the sting out of Cork, and kill them off then.

[offtheground]

Took a friend from Australia to the match.
Everytime the big screen flashed, she asked if all Cork people were black!

I thought this was really cringeworthy, seemed as if the cameraman was scanning the crowd for black people wearing a cork or kerry jersey. It's 2009 ffs, get over it...

[botman]

Took a friend from Australia to the match.
Everytime the big screen flashed, she asked if all Cork people were black!

In fairness your friend sounds kind of silly. Like she could have looked around and saw plenty of people in Cork jersey's who were white. I think around 25,000 Cork people went.

[INDIANA]

Counihan getting an awful doing down in Cork already I'm told. A lot of Cork fans want him out. I thought he'd done a decent job!

In hindsight not starting Cadogan might have been a mistake. But I questioned the merit of starting a guy with no experience on Friday- but he's looks a hell of a good player. Much better than he is at hurling. Shields on Walsh probably wasn't ideal either .

But the main reason Cork lost was because too many players didn't show up. Can't blame the manager for that. Well neutrals won't anyway.

[botman]

Terrible game yesterday. Error ridden and full of frees. Cork rolled over and didn't put up much of a fight at all.

This Kerry side have to be worst team to win an AI since Armagh in 2002. All the same they won't mind and hearties congratulations to them.

Bit disappointed at people picking up on Tadhg's hit esp the Cork boys who more than gave Tyrone their fill in the SF. If you give it lads, ye have to take it too.

That could be a contender for crazy post of the year. This Kerry team, or the bones of it, have been in 8 All Irelands in 10 years, and won 5 of them. Tyrone are a definite bogey team/have their number/are in their heads but apart from that, this team is probably one of the *best* teams that have won All Irelands.

Antrim should've beat them, Sligo should've beat them and Cork did beat them, so for me not a great team this year to be fair.

Don't get me wrong, well done and good luck to them, but overall a championship to forget.

[INDIANA]

Terrible game yesterday. Error ridden and full of frees. Cork rolled over and didn't put up much of a fight at all.

This Kerry side have to be worst team to win an AI since Armagh in 2002. All the same they won't mind and hearties congratulations to them.

Bit disappointed at people picking up on Tadhg's hit esp the Cork boys who more than gave Tyrone their fill in the SF. If you give it lads, ye have to take it too.

That could be a contender for crazy post of the year. This Kerry team, or the bones of it, have been in 8 All Irelands in 10 years, and won 5 of them. Tyrone are a definite bogey team/have their number/are in their heads but apart from that, this team is probably one of the *best* teams that have won All Irelands.

Antrim should've beat them, Sligo should've beat them and Cork did beat them, so for me not a great team this year to be fair.

Don't get me wrong, well done and good luck to them, but overall a championship to forget.

Bull shit of the highest order- westmeath should have beaten tyrone last year- down did beat them- mayo should have beaten them -etc etc etc. No-one questioning them.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Tyrone are a definite bogey team/have their number/are in their heads but apart from that, this team is probably one of the *best* teams that have won All Irelands.

Not so sure about that AZ, by definition a bogey team is a team who is not good enough to win a Championship themselves, but will beat 'better' opposition routinely. 2003, '05 & '08 kind of rip the arse out of that theory.

[armaghniac]

Very very much like Tyrone last year. Cut it extremely fine in several games, used Dublin as a booster into higher orbit and played possibly a better team in the final, but one who doesn't play their best against that opposition.

[INDIANA]

Tyrone are a definite bogey team/have their number/are in their heads but apart from that, this team is probably one of the *best* teams that have won All Irelands.

Not so sure about that AZ, by definition a bogey team is a team who is not good enough to win a Championship themselves, but will beat 'better' opposition routinely. 2003, '05 & '08 kind of rip the arse out of that theory.

I think you're taking that comment too much to heart. AZ is making the point that Tyrone are the only team that have beaten Kerry recently in CP. Other than that this Kerry team would have surpassed the 70's team in my view.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Nothing to heart, I just think that this 'bogey team' tag is inaccurate and misrepresentative. Lazy journalism at its worst 

[lynchbhoy]

being in Davin stand I saw Lynch pull cooper a couple of times and yes they are frees, but If the ref was giving them he also should have been giving the frees close in for coras every time the ball was played into oneill, the kerry full back (or whoever it was that was marking him) pushed oneill in the back. Blatently most of the time I thought.

That to me was the difference in the first half and helped keep kerry in the game and eventually helped take the wind out of corks sails.
cork still had their chances but the old problem of kicking too many wides from scorable positions killed them in the end.

Kerry were much more driven and first to balls. Cork didnt perform, but kerry didnt let them.
Thought it was lost on the line as counihan should have made changes far sooner when it was obv that a few of the players were not performing.

well done Kerry.
tommy walsh has defied a lot of his critics here and in the media. imo he is the best forward in the game. Can win his own posession, scores with both feet and can take a hit and still go on.
No whinging , no diving and plays the game with a freshness and desire that inspires. A great man for kids to look up to.

Like Kilkenny and tipp the prev week, the cuter, smarter players did well. Theses were all on the kerry team yesterday. Cork lack the guile and craft and the bit of underhand stuff that is stopping them from winning sam.

[bcarrier]

A ruthless display by Kerry yesterday. J O'C has done a fine job ...rotating selection and using subs has kept the team hungry.

Having Galvin, Mike McCarthy and Kennelly available helped but tactically and physically  they were well ahead of last year.

I wonder if they might yet get another year out of the Darragh/Quirke double act  ...

[redhugh]

Congrats to Kerry and Armagh. I was dissappointed with the minor game.As Brolly said it says a lot about the negativity that is being coached into the game at underage level - two teams that have played some great football this year should have given us a better game in my opinion. I thought the senior game was a great contest, although not a great game.I read somewhere that the Kerry starting 15 took to the field with 42 celtic crosses between them- a frightening stat.Kerry were exceptionally cool headed- I feel you really saw how tight this bunch of players are and how much they give for each other.
A fantastic performance from a team that were written off 3/4 times this summer, surely ensuring that this group of lads will be remembered with the Kerry greats of times past.Hard for Cork to know how to get past this - I'd say at this stage there's a long dark road ahead of them.Delighted for Tadhg Kennelly!