High drama in Killarney as Fionn Fitzgerald rescues Kerry to deny Cork Munster senior football final win
BY KIERAN McCARTHY
CORK manager Brian Cuthbert has questioned the awarding of a second-half penalty to Kerry during Sunday’s dramatic drawn Munster SFC final in Killarney.
While Fionn Fitzgerald’s injury-time point rescued a 2-15 to 3-12 draw for a rattled Kerry, a contentious second-half penalty that James O’Donoghue scored for the home side, after the referee deemed he was fouled, was a key moment.
Before this Cork had come from 1-9 to 1-5 behind at the break to lead 2-11 to 1-11, before O’Donoghue’s spot kick levelled the game.
‘I haven’t seen it back yet but, from where I was looking at, I don’t know how it could be a penalty, but that’s the decision that was taken,’ Cuthbert said.
This was a much improved Cork performance as Colm O’Neill scored 1-6, Barry O’Driscoll added 1-1, Donncha O’Connor kicked 1-3, while Alan O’Connor and Eoim Cadogan were also to the fore as Cork bossed a thrilling second half to come within seconds of a famous win.
‘We are disappointed but at the same time we can take pride from the performance. The players battled very well in the second half, we played good football and we were almost good enough to win it,’ Cuthbert said.
‘When we were on top we played good football, when they were on top we gave them too much space. The overriding emotion is that it was a game to be won.
‘From an attacking point of view we did fine, but defensively giving away 2-15 isn’t great – one or two of those goals were quite fortuitous.’
The replay will be in Saturday week at Fitzgerald Stadium again.
