Mayo are into the last four of the All Ireland Senior Football Championship for the first time in six years. They showed had an extra bit of quality in their Croke Park encounter with Cork, a county that has not reached the semifinal stage in 16 years.
The teams were even stevens at half time, 9 points apiece, but Cork were disappointed at their inaccuracy in kicking at all distances from the goal. That situation didn’t improve greatly and the Westerners began to show their edge in the third quarter of the game.
Cork took first blood as they had in the opening half, but Mayo established a narrow lead that they never relinquished and eventually pulled away in the dying minutes. The Cork men did make it a one point game, 15 to 14, with a fisted effort from Rory Maguire at 52 minutes, but within another five minutes the Westerners had made it 19 to 14. When Cork had it back to a three-point gap they saw a great goal chance saved in style by Jack Livingston from Brian O’Driscoll, and instead of succumbing to that leveling score, their opponents extended the lead via a counter attack that ended with with top scorer Ryan O’Donoghue pointing from a free.
O’Donoghue, and his fellow front-line forwards, Kobe McDonald and Darragh Beirne, together got 19 of Mayo’s 23 points and clearly they will provide the cutting edge to Mayo’s challenge against Louth in the semifinal.
Kerry 2-25 Tyrone 0-27
A goal from Armin Heinrich and a Paudie Clifford point proved the difference at the end as Kerry secured another semifinal place in their storied history in this epic battle over Tyrone.
Darren McCurry scored 0-10 for the northerners, but they’ll rue their 11 wides, while the Kingdom can thank star man David Clifford, with his 1-8, and Dylan Geaney, with his 8 points.
Louth 0-27 Monaghan 2-18
Louth seemed down and out when ref Sean Hurson issued Sean Callaghan with a red card 6 and a half minutes in for a shoulder to the head of Ryan McAnespie. They had yet to score a point, while Monaghan had three on the board at that stage. But they managed to go in at half-time with a two-point lead, thanks to a late two-pointer from Ciaran Downey and eventually win heroically in this quarterfinal game at Croke Park with a three-point margin.
Although in the new rules era, being down to 14 has proven too great a burden for most teams but Louth continue to make the running in the second half and got through to an All Ireland semifinal for the first time since 1957.
Dublin 1-25 Galway 1-21
it took a dramatic second-half comeback for Dublin against Galway 1-25 to 1-21 in a Croker Park thriller to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals and another potentially epic with long-time rivals Kerry.
Con O'Callaghan was a big scorer, 1-6, for the winners, including nabbing a late penalty for foul by Liam Silke on Colm Basquel.
Galway appeared to have had the upper hand when a goal from John Maher made it 1-20 to 0-17 with a quarter of an hour remaining
But Dublin finished superbly well, with the Tribesmen only added a single point since their goal.
Semifinal draw
Mayo will play Louth at Croke Park on Saturday, July 11 at 6 p.m. while, Kerry and Dublin will meet at 4 p.m. on Sunday, July 12, at the same venue
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Sunday 28 June
All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals
Dublin 1-25 Galway 1-21, Croke Park
Louth 0-27 Monaghan 2-18, Croke Park
Saturday 27 June
All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals
Kerry 2-25 Tyrone 0-27, Croke Park
Mayo 0-23 Cork 0-18, Croke Park
All-Ireland JFC quarter-final
Warwickshire 1-15 Kilkenny 1-10, Pairc na hEireann Birmingham
All-Ireland MHC final
Limerick 2-12 Tipperary 1-14, TUS Gaeilc Grounds
