Cork 7-26; Dublin 2-21
Men versus boys; seniors versus juniors; battle-hardened warriors versus inexperienced novices.
Whatever way you want to phrase it, this sell-out turned into a one-sided affair as goal-thirsty Cork cut the Dublin defense to rags in front of a heaving red and blue setting at a full Croke Park on Saturday evening.
Dublin’s surprise defeat of Limerick against the odds was what helped fill the stadium to capacity this time around as fans’ expectancy was raised to see if they could slay two giants in the one season.
There was no second Goliath to be seen - only Rebel warriors intent on ensuring that they could get back to an All Ireland final after last year's loss to Clare and bridge a 20-year gap to bring Liam MacCarthy back to Leeside later this month.
Tipp will have a helluva job containing the red-hot Rebel attack where Alan Connolly notched a hat-trick of goals, closely followed by big Brian Hayes and midfielder Tim O’Mahoney who bagged a brace each in an attacking side that had their opponents all but throwing in the towel by half time.
By that time, the game was long over as a contest with the Munster and League champions already leading by 10-points - 4-13 to 1-12. And to their credit, the winners didn’t take their foot off the jugular and by full-time they had doubled their victory margin to a staggering 20-points.
Former Tipp All-Ireland double winning manager Liam Sheedy joked on Sunday on television that the GAA should have given Cork the Liam MacCarthy to take home with them - a suggestion that Tipp has no chance of living with them.
However, as wise old heads often say, there is no trophy for a big semi-final performance. Indeed, it can often be a handicap for a manager as the expectation among fans puts added pressure on players to replicate such a performance in the final. As we saw with Dublin, it is hard to hit the heights in successive matches and in truth they weren’t even a pale shadow of the side who performed heroics against Limerick in the quarter-finals two weeks before.
Tipp, on the other hand, had to show their resolve, particularly when a man short going down the home straight and the fact that they rose to the occasion will help bond the young and old mix of players into something bigger and better than they were on the way up to Croke Park on Sunday morning.
Whether that will help level the playing field in Sunday week’s final is doubtful as Cork have beaten them twice this year in the league final and second round robin series in Munster.
They will do the same again in the final unless they believe their own hype or unless Tipp plays the game of their lives.
On Saturday, Cork were majestic - playing a frightening brand of hurling that threatened a goal virtually every time they ran at the Dublin rearguard.
On a day of Rebel rising, we should commend Dublin’s Cian O’Sullivan, who kept his side in it early on and then kept showing his class by accounting for 2-5 of Dublin’s total on a day when everything else seemed to go against them.
Cork boss Pat Ryan explained the emphasis on goals this season. “We’re targeting goals all the time, targeting fast starts all the time. I thought we left an awful lot of scores behind us but that is me being a bit critical, maybe over critical. I'll probably be on to the lads about a bit more work-rate as well. We were kind of happy that we were winning and putting it into the back of the net but our tackling from behind wasn't good enough.
“John Considine - a great Cork hurler - always said to me 'try and get the same score in both halves' and that is what we’ve been pushing for. Trying to make sure we’re not lulling off, we’ve had lulls in a lot of parts in games during the year. That’s something we’re going after and that is a key thing for us. Delighted with our fellas,” he stressed.
Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin saluted Cork by stating: “That was by far the best performance over 75 minutes that I’ve seen this year, by a long way. They are going to take some beating I would say.
“Their goals, we couldn't live with their pace and power inside. They were breaking the line, they had the composure and presence of mind in tight scenarios to be really aware of who was outside and just popped the ball outside and they did that extremely well. They were quality, quality goals. They're obviously coached very well and I’d say it’s something that they work on very hard. It's very, very hard to deal with it.
“They have huge ball winners across the half-forward line so they can go long if the off the shoulder isn't working, or if a team has a full press on their puck out, they can just lamp the ball down to the likes of Declan Dalton,” he said.
Cork: P Collins; N O'Leary, E Downey, S O'Donoghue; C Joyce, R Downey, M Coleman; T O’Mahony (2-1), D Fitzgibbon (0-3); D Healy (0-1), S Barrett, D Dalton (0-5, 0-2f); P Horgan (0-8, 0-6f), A Connolly (3-2), B Hayes (2-1) Subs: R O’Flynn for Healy (50 mins), S Kingston (0-2) for Horgan (55), T O’Connell for R Downey (58), C Lehane (0-1) for Barrett (63), J O’Connor for Dalton (66).
Dublin: S Brennan; J Bellew, P Smyth, C McHugh; P Doyle, C Burke (0-3), A Dunphy; C Donohoe, B Hayes (0-1); R McBride, F Whitely (0-3), J Hetherton (0-1); S Currie (0-7f), R Hayes, C O'Sullivan (2-5) Subs: D Lucey for Dunphy (15), D Power for McHugh (21), D Burke (0-1) for McBride (h-t), D O'Dulaing for R Hayes (46), C Ó Riain for O’Sullivan (60).
Ref: J Murphy (Limerick).
GAA RESULTS & FIXTURES
All-Ireland SHC semi-finals
Tipperary 4-20 Kilkenny 0-30
Cork 7-26 Dublin 2-21
All-Ireland MFC final
Tyrone 1-16 Kerry 1-15
Ladies All-Ireland SFC quarter-final
Meath 2-17 Tipperary 1-6
Kerry 3-12 Kildare 0-11
Galway 1-18 Waterford 1-12
Dublin 3-15 Cork 0-7
Camogie All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final
Tipperary 1-22 Kilkenny 0-19
Waterford 2-20 Clare 2-10
FIXTURES
Saturday 12 July
All-Ireland SFC semi-final
Kerry v Tyrone, Croke Park, 5pm
Tailteann Cup final
Kildare v Limerick, Croke Park, 2.30pm sp
Sunday 13 July
All-Ireland SFC semi-final
Meath v Donegal, Croke Park, 4pm
All-Ireland JFC final
New York or Warwickshire v Kilkenny or London, Croke Park, 1.30pm - TG4 YouTube
