National Football League Preview: For the third year running the two Munster rivals make early contact in the National Football League. Over the past two seasons the product has been unsatisfactory but in its way significant.
Cork's thrashing of Kerry two years ago didn't indicate that they had discovered a cutting edge but it did give early evidence of Kerry's anaemia.
Twelve months ago the fixture showed Kerry had acquired a hard edge. In the words of one observer that match "wasn't so much physical as just dirty".
This evening in the league's first Friday night fixture, the landscape has shifted further in Kerry's favour. They come to the table as both league holders and All-Ireland champions, having had a fantastic 2004.
Not only did the defence tighten and harden but the attack flowed and Jack O'Connor timed his team's run as nervelessly as Lester Pigott.
That all of this was done without the services of Darragh Ó Sé in the All-Ireland and Séamus Moynihan for most of the championship only underlines the extent to which the team blossomed. Now the champions are back on the track that no team has conquered for 15 years.
Ó Sé and Moynihan are back tonight but not as a centrefield pairing, another running of the old experiment that didn't go so well in a recent challenge.
That will have been a disappointment for O'Connor who knows from last year that Moynihan would be a greater asset in the middle than at wing back, which despite being his best position and one in which he racked up several man-of-the-match awards last year until injury intervened, is also part of a defence that settled really well during the summer whereas centrefield was erratic.
But O'Connor's anxieties are trivial compared to his opposite number's. Billy Morgan had a dreadful re-introduction to inter-county football last year. A relatively encouraging league gave way to a championship during which Cork never reached their potential.
That potential isn't enormous at the moment. There are very few elite performers and only four of tonight's line-up started the 1999 All-Ireland final.
Many of the other players have been giving an uneasy impression that they're not going to improve much more. So it's not surprising that a number of new faces are on show.
James Masters, captain of the All-Ireland minor champions in 2000, is the most notable. His slow progress to the senior intercounty stage is partly due to his club Nemo Rangers being very careful about developing his talent. Now that he's arrived however, expectations will be high.
It must have been frustrating for Morgan to watch the team playing Cork IT in the McGrath Cup knowing that one of the best players on view was All-Ireland hurling medallist John Gardiner who's as likely as Roy Keane to play football for the county.
Team building starts with the central positions and the uncertainty about them is reflected in tonight's team. Graham Canty is out with injury and he would fill one of those spots. But which? He's needed at full back, centre back and centrefield.
Conor McCarthy looks more of a wing forward than a centre forward whereas Brendan Jer O'Sullivan is a punt at full forward. He undoubtedly has the strength and athleticism but he will have to be more focused than his more usual role of free running half forward demands.
Word in the county is that the management and players have been working extremely hard at preparing for this year. Training programmes have been stepped up and Morgan's had more time to assess the best tactical direction for the side.
But for tonight Cork are a work in progress whereas Kerry, for all the missing first-choice players, are settled.
CORK: K O'Dwyer; N Geary, D Kavanagh, A Lynch; N O'Leary, S Levis, M Cronin; D Hurley, N Murphy; C O'Riordan, C McCarthy, K McMahon; J Masters, BJ O'Sullivan, J Hayes. Subs: K Murphy, K O'Connor, O Sexton, M Shields, G Murphy, M Ó Cróinín, A Cronin, K O'Sullivan, F Gould.
KERRY: D Murphy; M Ó Sé, A O'Mahony, M Lyons; T Ó Sé, E Fitzmaurice, S Moynihan; D Ó Sé, M Quirke; N Kennelly, P Kelly, E Brosnan; D Quill, R O'Connor, C Cooper.
