An added implication this year is avoiding Dublin at Super 8 stage. You might catch them once in a semi-final or final but the chances of catching them twice in one season are slim so avoid them until you have to.

The reduction in attraction is in direct correlation to Cork’s dramatic demise in the last season or two. Prior to that they were very competitive in Munster, if not nationally.

None of us know what to expect from them this evening in Páirc Ui Chaoimh. The noises have been positive and they certainly look better conditioned than they were this time 12 months ago, but they are undependable. When a Kerry man starts talking up Cork it is always seen as being disingenuous and trying to be cute. In reality it is the opposite.

We know well in Kerry that if a Cork player or team gets the slightest bit of encouragement they can turn into supermen and start kicking scores from everywhere, particularly in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. They have always been the personification of ‘confidence players’ and if they get their tails up tonight they will be dangerous.

The big difference with this current Cork group is there is no middle ground. If they are going poorly there is no will to survive and fight their way back into a game and they go into freefall. We will learn a lot about them this evening and which extreme they are operating at or if they have indeed found a competitive middle ground. Examining this evening’s final in more detail, we can analyse three areas that are going to be significant.

Setting the tone

With all the talk of a Munster final stroll, Peter Keane will be anxious to avoid any signs of the cancer of complacency. He will want his players to set the tone early on with strong body language, a ferocious work rate and accurate,

clinical football. Believe it or not, I think we set the tone for the match last year the night before the game. We travelled up Friday and stayed in Fota together. I’m always a fan of having the group together the night before a big game where possible. The collective focus clicks in that bit earlier and it’s good to get into the bubble to relax together to prep for the following evening. From a practical point of view, it’s good for the players that all their food is laid on for them so they know — and we know as a management — that everyone is fueled up properly for the game and they are ready to go.

Last year there was the additional motivation of getting into Páirc Uí Chaoimh for a kickaround on Friday evening, organised by chairman Tim Murphy through his contacts in the Cork County Board. None of us had been involved in a match at the revamped stadium and it was important to get a feel for the new Páirc, both the pitch and the surroundings.

The free-takers and goalkeepers got a chance to find their marks and, mid-heatwave 2018, we were all able to see where the sun was going to be the following evening to prepare ourselves for that. While we were there, an irate Ronan McCarthy rang one of the staff at the Páirc and chewed the head off him.

Cork couldn’t get into the pitch that week as it was being spared for the weekend’s game, yet here was the opposition having a leisurely kickaround the night before the match. It must have driven him to distraction. Before we left Páirc Uí Chaoimh that night, I decided to exploit the situation and told the players what had happened, how we had the first score on the board already and to keep our boot on Cork’s throat from the off the following evening.

This time round McCarthy will want his team to set the tone from the off. I’m sure he will have learned from last year and there will have been no friendly kickarounds for Kerry last night. He will know for them to have a chance of success, they will have to be in Kerry’s face from the off, snarling at them and bringing a level of aggression and intent that we have not seen since 2015 — then going and playing energetic football. I’m not sure they have the personalities yet to implement this but if they allow themselves to be bullied again, it could be another long evening out for Cork.

Kickouts

This week Ronan McCarthy alluded to the fact that it is very hard to play front-foot football if you don’t actually have the ball. This is why kick-outs are going to be important — again. In last year’s final, we won 80% of our own kick-out and 44% of Cork’s. Accordingly we had plenty of possession and our forwards were able to fillet the Cork defence. Our forwards were burning most of their energy positively, on the ball and hunting scores.

The Cork backs were expending their energy negatively, chasing Kerry forwards and trying to plug holes. As a result, they had very little energy left to drive on and run at Kerry. This also meant the Kerry forward line had great structure and weren’t being sucked out of shape chasing back the field with the half-forward line contributing 1-7, a good indicator of the aforementioned front foot football.

I will be watching both goalkeepers closely, as well as the movement out the field and their respective targets. Last year, Mark White had a good day in the semi-final against Tipperary and we really targeted him. While not quite hitting our target of 50% of his kickouts we severely disrupted him, particularly in the first half and we scored 1-4 directly off the Cork kick-out. Have Cork developed their kickout sufficiently in the meantime?

To stand any chance they will need to. Witness the transformative effect Shaun Patton, Donegal’s new custodian, has had on them so far this summer with the quality and accuracy of his kickouts, further franking the importance of restarts. Shane Ryan has all the attributes to succeed as a top class inter-county goalkeeper.

I think he is tailor-made for the role of a sweeper keeper, playing off his line and allowing his backs to attack the ball and play from the front. His kick-out is still erratic though and is a work in progress. With each passing game he is progressing and the step up in stakes will be a great test for him tonight.

As well as their midfielders both teams have auxiliary long-range kick-out targets in Diarmuid O’Connor and Seán O’Shea for Kerry and Ruairí Deane for Cork. If either team adopts an over-aggressive press one of this trio could be vital in winning a long kick-out that can beat the press and set up goal chances.

Backs and benches

There is a perception that both defences are vulnerable, especially under extended periods of pressure — or in Kerry’s case, when run at. I would argue most defencesstruggle in that scenario and I would have a bigger problem with runners being lost out the field. Last year, we tried to change the way we approached our defensive shape throughout the league and championship.

We shipped some scores during the league as we tried to improve it but this was a price I was willing to pay. Our structure was aimed at the latter stages of the championship. It’s fine playing a sweeper when the opposition do likewise but when you play the orthodox teams such as Dublin and Mayo what do you do then?

To win an All-Ireland you have to beat these teams. Because of our no-show against Galway in the Super 8s we never got the opportunity to road-test our tweaked system on the team it was designed for —Dublin. This year Kerry had a strong defensive shape throughout the league and conceded much less than we did the previous year, but still conceded their largest scores against the orthodox teams in Dublin and Mayo in the league final.

Will Cork have the courage to go man-on-man and attack Kerry or will they afford Kerry the luxury of having Jack Sherwood sit back in front of the full-back line and protect them? Can they be fluid enough to switch between different systems of play? This will be interesting to watch out for.

If Cork can hold Kerry early and stay in the game, the impact of the substitutes coming in could be the deciding of this game. That’s why Cork’s late injury withdrawals are a blow in terms of shallowing their squad. Both have good options to come in and effect the game in different ways, but Kerry have more quality and better balance in their replacements. Interestingly neither side have that explosive Darran O’Sullivan-type player to come in and go to town on a tiring defensive unit.

I am always, and will always, be wary and respectful of Cork, particularly in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, especially when they have nothing to lose and seem to have a renewed confidence about them. I think the Kerry players and management will treat them with similar respect and because of this and the strong team selected, Kerry will win.