It's hard to think of a team that has suffered such a profound bereavement in the lead-up to a big match as Kerry did this week. The passing of Micheal Ó Sé, brother of team manager Paidí, leaves three members of the team, Darragh, Tomás and Marc mourning their father. In such a context, it must be difficult for the county to focus on tomorrow evening's delayed Munster semi-final replay.
The match is very much there for Kerry. There is reason to believe that they were disproportionately affected by the dire weather conditions in Killarney last week.
Their attack was not the most robust for a heavy surface and Cork's mobile strong defence - particularly the half backs - were well on top.
There was a similar state of affairs at centrefield where young Seamus Scanlon was never going to thrive in the wind and rain and in defence, the team sometimes struggled against the strength of Colin Corkery and the half forwards.
Even so, Kerry looked to have found the solution by switching Seamus Moynihan to centrefield. The 2000 footballer of the year can probably play anywhere but the Kerry management's dogmatic insistence on playing him at full back, one of the least expansive positions on the pitch, looked to have been vindicated by a string of great performances until Corkery raised a few questions in last year's Munster final.
Now with those questions once more current, it might be time to bite the bullet and optimise the contribution of Moynihan. The big question then becomes the ability of Barry O'Shea to slot back into the position he hasn't filled regularly for three years.
One change is certain on the side that will be announced today. Aodan MacGearailt has been ruled out with a broken finger and the temptation will be to start Liam Hassett who did make a difference when he came on the last day, adding a more muscular presence to the half forwards.
As against the several improvements open to Kerry, Cork could make one or two. Jim O'Donoghue played well when introduced in the threatened centrefield zone. Up front it may be that Larry Tompkins thinks it is premature to drop Diarmuid O'Sullivan after just one championship match but the player has played his entire limited senior career as a full forward - a position from which Corkery can hardly be moved.
The advantage lies with the champions.
