Cork v Kerry: The one certainty about tomorrow's Munster replay is that Kerry have run out of excuses. Their championship run to date has been against Waterford, Tipperary and a widely dismissed Cork team. After last week's hard rattling there can be no more pleading complacency or difficulty in getting motivated.
That explanation of the team's poor displays to date is of course charitable and the performance in Killarney last week looked a far more serious problem than disillusion with the quality of opposition they've been facing.
Cork outfought and outran the champions, who were steeped to survive late assaults on their goal and blessed in the timing of Anthony Lynch's red card, which allowed them grab three points in the minutes before half-time and keep the match in sight.
Kerry's disquiet can be seen in the reluctance to name a team this week. Normally the county just bangs out its selections on a Wednesday regardless of injuries. This week the conundrum is no more than figuring out with whom to replace the suspended Kieran Donaghy. The big centrefielder is a loss for the team because he presents an alternative target in the middle, varying the focus on Darragh Ó Sé.
Options include the relocation of Séamus Moynihan and Eoin Brosnan. Moynihan at centrefield was an old yearning when he was stagnating at full back, and coincidentally, he had his last championship run there four years ago when this fixture was last replayed. Whereas it didn't go badly in Killarney, the experiment wasn't a success in Cork.
Brosnan on the other hand hasn't been going through a good spell but he has played well centrally before, including in the All-Ireland final two years ago.
Other possible changes are the starting of Darren O'Sullivan, whose pace caused problems for Cork when he was introduced for his fellow prodigy Paul O'Connor. Another replacement, Tom O'Sullivan, could also come back into the reckoning.
Cork named the expected team with Owen Sexton filling in for the suspended Lynch, who flew to Dublin last night to appeal his suspension and will in all likelihood be missed given the blatancy of his foul on Donaghy - albeit his patience had been worn thin by the constant tangling with Paul Galvin.
Kerry have a range of areas where they can improve quite a bit. At the back they struggled to keep pace with the hard running of the Cork team and were sluggish on the breaks. Up front the shadow of Colm Cooper's ailing form falls on the team's scoring potential. It's bizarre to think of his being held scoreless from play in three championship matches to date, compared to last year's average of 1-3 for each of his first three outings.
But the back eight will have to improve on the quality of the deliveries into the attack, particularly with Cooper being marked by the formidable Graham Canty. The old replay rule of who learns most and who has greater room for improvement is particularly relevant here given how unprepared the champions were for their opponents' energy.
In terms of realistic improvement it's not hard to see Kerry being better-prepared for the pace and relentlessness of Cork's game. Greater awareness can cut back on the sort of initial damage suffered in the drawn match. There's no doubting their room for improvement either but scepticism about its imminence is also valid. Still we'll make the assumption one more time.
CORK: A Quirke; M Prout, G Canty, K O'Connor; M Shields, G Spillane, O Sexton; N Murphy, D Kavanagh; S O'Brien, P O'Neill, K McMahon; J Masters, F Goold, D O'Connor.
KERRY: Tbc.
