Kerry beat Derry on Sunday in a quite bloodless encounter at Croke Park that ended 1-15 to 0-15, their goal coming courtesy of wing-forward Donnacha Walsh in the first half. It wasn’t a bad game but it had all the intensity of a kid’s birthday party. The only decent bit of hitting all afternoon came when Derry’s two best forwards, Paddy and Eoin Bradley, ran into each other by accident, causing Paddy to have to come off the pitch with a mild concussion.
Kerry won as they liked and would have won by more if they’d had to, with Tommy Walsh, Kieran Donaghy and Colm Cooper all pretty comfortable against the Derry defence.
The Division Two final didn’t particularly set the pulses racing either, Cork running out very easy 1-14 to 0-12 winners over Monaghan.
Seamus McEnaney admitted afterwards that the five-point margin flattered his Monaghan side and he was right for in truth, they simply didn’t turn up on Sunday. All the speed, passion and fight that has marked Monaghan out as a possible coming team these past few years was absent and, given that they will have to get through first Derry and then either Tyrone or Armagh just to reach an Ulster final this year, McEnaney’s fifth year in charge could very well turn into quite a shortened one.
As for Cork, they move on apace. Although they hadn’t much to beat on Sunday, they beat it well and with great efficiency. Graham Canty has the place to himself at times and in Paul Kerrigan they appear to have unearthed the type of dynamic wing forward they’ve lacked these past few summers. Kerrigan – and to greater or lesser extents James Masters and Donncha O’Connor – put Monaghan to the pin of their collars in the first half and finished them off in the second after Tommy Freeman and Paul Finlay hauled the northerners back into contention. It was Kerrigan’s run that set Masters up for the title-sealing goal with 10 minutes to go.