One more yell left in the Rebels?

AFTER their League final embarrassment, you'd have been taking liberties just to include Cork in this list but any team that goes to Killarney and gets a result - disappointing though the draw ultimately was - deserves respect.

It's hard to put a limit on Alan O'Connor's (inset) influence but the platform he provided and sheer aggression he showed around the middle was a clear demonstration of what they've been missing.

Any team with Colm O'Neill and Brian Hurley in it will score if they get enough ball but the cat is out of the bag with regards their sweeper and they might need to rethink how best to contain Kieran Donaghy.

The flip side of all this optimism is, should they lose in Killarney, Cork must play three games in three weeks to make the All-Ireland SFC semi-final, the third of which would be against Dublin in Croke Park.

KEY QUESTION: Can they do it again?

Eamonn Fitzmaurice is too intuitive a manager to make the same, self-confessed, mistakes again. Don't expect Marc Ó Sé to be left sweeper-less with O'Neill or O'Connor, or Anthony Maher-less in tomorrow's replay.

As such, Cork need both an improved performance and probably a couple of surprises of their own.

cork