GAELIC GAMES:NOTHING CHANGES in the tango down south. Cork and Kerry mixed it with the usual ferocity and, as is often the case, there was only a kick of a ball and the usual bragging rights between them at the end.

Of course, neither camp was in mood for braggadocio. It is not the way of things down here. Cork walked into Killarney with the slightly heady feeling of being All-Ireland champions and it didn’t take long for the Kerry men to haul them back to ground level. Some 40,892 showed up and it was old times straight away: a hell-for-leather scrap in the dust.

Cork managed five points in the first half. They had a talk in the cool dressingroom of Fitzgerald Stadium, came back out and allowed their hosts just five points in the second half – two of those in injury time.

John Miskella hit the post with what would have been a killer goal.

Much earlier, Kieran Donaghy had sent a dangerous ball skating across the Cork line when the Kingdom had lit fires all through the Cork defence.

Kerry, up nine points early in the second half, were rocked by the slow-fast nature of Cork’s recovery and were relieved to hear the final whistle. They celebrated as heartily as a county that has had 74 of these titles can do.

Cork left Killarney, still the All-Ireland champions and still not the Munster champions. Nothing won but not yet lost either. Except, perhaps, the old accusation that Kerry have the Indian Sign on their old rivals.

“Look, it is inevitable that people are going to say that,” nodded manager Conor Counihan afterwards.

“My own view on that is that records are there to be broken. It is going to happen some day and if Johnny Miskella hadn’t hit the post, it might have happened today. You can’t dwell on that.

“We have to get our business right and if we do that and Kerry do their business right, maybe we will find out the answer to that later on in the year.”

It is shaping up that way. Kerry are back at the high point of last year, sailing into the quarter-finals.

They will be heartened by this victory and the prospect of Tomás Ó Sé and Paul Galvin to return. In fact, Galvin was spotted warming up here but did not enter the fray, much to the disappointment of all Kerry people and Noel O’Leary, his old sparring partner from Cork.

This match lacked the raw-knuckle edge of Cork-Kerry encounters of yesteryear but contained some marvellous scores and confirmed just how strong the game is in this corner of the country.

“Just relieved I suppose,” said Kerry manager Jack O’Connor afterwards.

“It was a game that had draw written all over it with five minutes to go. We were lucky enough at the end – Cork had a great goal chance at the end.

“Bit disappointing in the second half. We only kicked five points.

“But I wouldn’t be forgetting about Cork. They are going to have a good say about what happens from here on in.”

A reunion in late summer is highly possible. Whether Kerry have managed their old trick of planting doubts in the minds of their neighbours or whether this defeat will steel the All-Ireland champions for another push remains to be seen.

“This was an enjoyable football game on a fine day in Killarney but there is all to play for.

“It was an opportunity, no doubt,” said Counihan.

“We may have lost the battle but not the war.”