Tomas O Se says Kerry have never been able to come away from Cork with an easy win.

As the Kingdom prepare to do battle with the Rebels in the last-ever Munster SFC final to be played at Pairc Ui Chaoimh before the old stadium is demolished and rebuilt, former Kerry wing back O Se concedes that the Leesiders are always a tough nut to crack:

"There would be no rhyme or reason to some of the games we had against them because, no matter how good Kerry might have been at the time, whether or not we were All-Ireland champions, we never came out of Cork with a handy win," he writes in The Irish Independent.

"They have always been the barometer for Kerry and Sunday will be no different. Both teams will feel something deep inside that has become ingrained by history. It's not hatred. It's more an unbelievable hunger just to deny the other a win.

"I'm living in Cork and, to my mind, there isn't a better sporting county in the country. I always had the utmost respect for them as footballers but, once we stepped over the white line, it was really a case of going to war. For that hour to hour and a half, your head was in a different place. You were a different person really.

"The nightmare scenario for a Kerryman in recent years would have been to lose an All-Ireland semi-final or final to them in Croke Park. That would have been horrendous.

"If I was to pick my favourite day as a footballer, it would probably have been the 2005 Munster final. A sweltering day in the Pairc and we beat them with a huge team performance. I got man of the match and I felt as good coming out of there as I felt about winning any All-Ireland. I was wrecked, sunburnt, dehydrated, everything, but didn't give a damn. For the hour or two immediately after that game, I was in pure heaven." Tweet

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