All-Ireland SFC Final Cork v Kerry: Seán Morantalks to Cork's versatile captain about the biggest day of his career

It should be a particularly apprehensive time for any players on the frontier between the counties, but Cork captain Derek Kavanagh is a long way away, in the city. But next weekend's All-Ireland final has him revisiting a fixture that has its share of unhappy memories.

Three months ago he had the chance to win the Munster title after bursting through in the dying minutes of the match in Killarney. Tugged back by Tomás Ó Sé, the Cork captain could have gone down or passed the ball. Instead, he blazed the ball wide.

"You'll probably never get a chance to do that again in a Munster final,

to win the game for Cork," he says.

"I was distraught after it, but was told to cop myself on, that we were still in the championship. I got on with it."

In last year's All-Ireland semi-final, he found himself cast as an emergency full back after Graham Canty's season-ending injury. It's a role he had played before, but not one he enjoys. It also carried with it the onerous task of marking Kieran Donaghy, then on his way to the Footballer of the Year accolade.

"I'd used him at full back in Nemo," recalls Cork manager Billy Morgan, "when he came out of minor even though I knew he didn't like playing there and when I came back with the county we had no full backs so I asked him to go back again.

"He's a very unselfish player and will sacrifice himself for the good of the team. At the first night's training I remember Colin Corkery slagging him about being back at full back again. Derek said, 'I don't care - anywhere one to 15, I'll take it'."

In 2005 he had sustained an ankle ligament injury that initially threatened and ultimately undermined his performance against Kerry in a season when he had been playing well.

This year, Kerry are the final obstacle. Kavanagh is playing well in his favourite position at centrefield and captains the side, a burden he hasn't noticed much this year until the All-Ireland came into focus.

"It's a big burden in weeks like this to be honest," he says, "because there's a lot more media attention and a lot more responsibility, even if at the end of the day you're just another player."

The captaincy came through the Cork process of allowing county champions nominate their leader.

"I don't agree with the system," says Morgan. "I think the captaincy should go to the player best suited to doing it. But with Nemo champions I'd no problem with Derek. I like captains to talk, but not every captain is that type of personality so we have tended to use established players like Anthony Lynch and Graham Canty. I gave Derek the option, but he said he'd be happy to talk.

"I'll tell you a story about Derek. At the end of fifth year in school he decided he wanted to do chemistry for the Leaving Cert and he approached a friend of mine, Jim Cremin, who's a chemistry teacher and asked could he help him.

"Jim said okay until he heard Derek hadn't done any science before and tried to talk him out of it. But Derek said, 'we can do this together' - Jim said: 'We?' Anyway, Derek sat the Christmas exam and failed gloriously, sat the mock leaving, failed again, but not so badly and eventually came through the Leaving with flying colours after just one year. He's very single-minded."

Kavanagh is from a well-known football family in Nemo Rangers, who are next-door neighbours of Morgan.

Brother Joe is a veteran of Cork's most recent trips to the All-Ireland final, in 1999 and '93. On both occasions he scored remarkably similar and spectacular goals, but each time the team lost, an outcome that Derek jokes about when asked if he has sought advice from the brother.

"No. I try to stay away from him considering he's lost two. He does offer a small bit of advice, which is great, but I saw first-hand the pain of losing All-Ireland finals with him and it's not something I want to experience."

Family and social commitments have been affected by the run to this year's final, with the Cork captain losing out on full engagement with a couple of big events.

"Two dry weddings and two missed stags," he acknowledges ruefully, "but that's the sacrifice of it. Hopefully, I'll have a good winter."

There is always comment on the difference between the buzz in the city when the hurlers qualify for an All-Ireland and when the footballers do likewise. For the past four years the hurlers have taken their season down to the last day.

This is the footballers' first final appearance in eight years. Kavanagh says the disparity in public recognition is something his team have become accustomed to.

"I don't think it bothers us any more. We're just a close-knit bunch and we're well used to walking out into a half-empty stadium. It doesn't bother us; we're playing for ourselves.

"It might sound selfish, but we're not trying to play for the supporters. We're playing for ourselves and we want to win for ourselves. Simple as that."

Derek Kavanagh

Club: Nemo Rangers.

Age: 28.

Height: 6ft 2in.

Weight: 14st.