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SOME questions answered and most importantly, a place in the second round of the playoffs next weekend secured.
Cork’s pitchers were worth all the value of this victory at Semple Stadium, with the return of Colm Spillane considerably strengthening the defense, Mark Coleman was a joy to watch as a sweeper and Robbie O’Flynn’s pace and shooting gave up 0 -5 from the top. He was ably assisted by Seamus Harnedy, who also passed five scores, and Shane Kingston, with four.
Patrick Horgan fanned out more deeply as an assistant midfielder and snuggled in some sweet spots, but Cork didn’t lean too heavily on him. It helped that Deccie Dalton, on his first outing, raised a green flag after eight minutes.
Kieran Kingston had his team tuned in from the start, better balanced and well structured, but more importantly, breaking every tackle like their lives depended on it.
Luke Meade and Bill Cooper did the heavy lifting on breaks, but collectively the forwards hunted in packs for the first time since defeating Limerick last year and Damien Cahalane and Tim O’Mahony used the weight to deny Dublin clean possession in the air.
Cork looked hungry, even wounded, after his loss to Waterford and the scathing criticism that followed. It was the least expected, but it still made a difference as he never allowed the Dubs to establish themselves in the game despite some tasty opening points from Danny Sutcliffe.
The lineup changes made a difference, of course. Spillane solidified the defense line, Luke Meade’s energy in midfield made it easy for Coleman to return as a sweeper, O’Flynn and Jack O’Connor added pace, Dalton was an option for a longer ball.
O’Connor and Dalton connected for the key score in the first half, after eight minutes, and the latter scored to push Cork 1-4 to 0-3 and gave them the lead.
With Dalton and O’Connor on a two-man inside line, Horgan was eliminated as a fourth leading midfielder. The problem was that he deprived Horgan of possession in the first quarter, although in the second 20 minutes he was fouled and went over a high point in the game.
Still, Cork hit off-field scores from O’Flynn and Kingston, 0-3 each in the first half, while Harnedy caught two beauties as well. Coleman was absolutely cleaning on the free paper and Meade showed his loose quality.
Aggression and work pace were the notable difference from last weekend, Harnedy and Dalton tackling in the middle third. The only slight criticism of Cork was the number of free hits he conceded, which gave Donal Burke five free hits, but it was still an encouraging 1-13-0-10 at halftime.
They allowed the Dubs to narrow the margin in the final 10 minutes but were at least denied goals. Psychologically that was important.
The rebels avoided some useful points in trying to design objectives, and while that didn’t work, it was encouraging. With speed up front, getting through another two games and arriving at Croke Park in November could be through green flags.
Cork delivered an expected beating to Dublin when they met at Parnell Park in 2007, but in all three championship matches from 2008 to 2016, it was much tighter. Rebel supporters could hope to beat the Dubs, but the county no longer has the right to do so.
There may have been a huge gap from 1927 until the Dubs’ last victory over Cork, but the Leesiders have been 15 seasons and counting without Liam McCarthy returning to the South Mall, an absolute famine. Each opponent must be treated with the utmost respect.
Junior coach Donal Óg Cusack nailed it in his preview: “This team from Cork sometimes seems like a group that thinks they have nothing to prove.”
This time that was not the case at all. And we all saw how much better they threw for that.
P Horgan 0-8 (0-5 f, 0-1 65), S Harnedy, R O’Flynn 0-5 each, D Dalton 1-1, S Kingston 0-4, J O’Connor, L Meade 0 – 1.
D Burke 0-11 (0-9 f), C Crummey, D Sutcliffe 0-3 each, C Boland 0-2, C Burke, D Keogh, R Hayes 0-1 each.
To Nash; R Downey, C Spillane, S O’Donoghue; D Cahalane, M Coleman T O’Mahony; B Cooper, L Meade; S Harnedy, S Kingston, R O’Flynn; J O’Connor, D Dalton, P Horgan (c).
S McDonnell for O’Donoghue (inj 29), C Lehane for Dalton (52) A Walsh for Harnedy (65), N O’Leary for Downey (67), S Barrett for O’Connor (73).
A Nolan; P Smyth, E O’Donnell, J Madden; C Burke, D Gray, C O’Callaghan; J Malone, R. McBride; C Boland, C Crummey, D Sutcliffe; D Burke, R Hayes, E Dillon.
D Keogh for Dillon (46), S Moran for Malone (50), L Rushe for Hayes (51), M Schutte for Boland (51), C Keaney for McBride (66).
John Keenan (Wicklow).
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