PAUL Galvin summed up it all up when he said that Sunday’s All-Ireland final is the making or breaking of this Kerry team.
"If we don’t beat Cork, we are nothing. Everything that we won before will be forgotten," said the Finuge man. He is right, to an extent.
There is no escaping the magnitude of this clash. It’s huge. Victory would be the ultimate success and it could be the one single game that this team might be remembered for. A dynasty depends on this game.
Losing to Cork is bad at the best of times but to lose to them on the biggest stage, well, we might as well just pack up and move.
But I don’t think we will lose. In fact, I’m very confident that we won’t. Fair enough, I accept the argument that this is a local derby and anything can happen in a game like this. But this isn’t just any derby, it’s an All-Ireland final and no team likes these big days better than Kerry.
For me, this game will go one of two ways. We might be treated to the cracker that all the neutrals are hoping for - an epic contest between two open football sides.
Or we might just be too strong for them, blowing them out of the water like we have done in the last three times we have met them in Croke Park. Okay, that might be a bit too strong but we could make some great hay in the September sun.
If Kerry start quickly out of the blocks, like against Dublin, but manage to sustain it, we could have a repeat of the Kilkenny and Limerick All-Ireland hurling final.
Talking to Declan O’Sullivan, he said that Kerry want to get that 70-minute performance, and there would be no better place than an All-Ireland final against Cork.
Looking at both sides, Kerry have the forward power and there is no way that James Masters will be near 100 per cent for this game. He might have defied the medics by recovering from his broken jaw so quickly but the Nemo man will be seriously short of match fitness.
And what if he gets a friendly ‘wel-come to Croker’ high shoulder from a Kerry back, it might be a short lived final for Masters. There is no doubt that, if he starts, he will be tested early.
It’s the same as in soccer. If there is a new goalkeeper or one that has been out of action for a while, the opposition will rain shots in on him, just to test him. The same mantra works in the GAA.
I think that the loss of Anthony Lynch far outweighs the addition of Masters because the latter was always going to play some part. Now, it’s just a longer role that probably was expected.
In losing Lynch, they have lost one of their main men - one of their star players who drives them on from the half back line. He will be missed, and this is just what Billy Morgan didn’t want.
While Cork are trying to sneak unnoticed into Sunday’s final, they are hitting the headlines for all the wrong reasons. First, Morgan snubbed the Cork press night and only sent five players to meet the media. Then, Lynch got injured.
Compare this to Kerry’s build-up. Darragh ” Sé is alright again. There are no injury worries. The press night was a huge success, leaving all the national media gasping in awe at how open and approachable the whole set-up was.
While Cork kept to themselves, Kerry sent the whole squad, bar a handful of absentees, to meet the media. It was a pick ’n’ mix format. If you wanted to talk to a player, you talked to him.
It’s a great way of getting all the media work out of the way over a week before the final, leaving the players the chance to focus on the game.
Back to the game and it’s hard to know which players will sparkle and shine the brightest. That’s only a guess game but Kerry have too many good players not to win.Granted, having the best players doesn’t guarantee success but it takes you a hell of a lot closer to it.
Throw in Kerry’s work ethic and their burning desire not to be the first side from this county to lose to Cork in an All-Ireland - a recurring them with the players - and you just feel that it will be the Kingdom’s day on Sunday.
