Talented Cork show true form
One was Tyrone, with the form in the book, a battle-hardened performer with a lot of experience against a second, Cork, with bags of potential and all of the attributes to become great, given time.
The racing public tend to make the proven performer the favourite to prevail and the bookies and the pundits did likewise prior to this game.
However, the odds or the opinions of the pundits make no difference to those involved and yesterday they had no impact on Cork who delivered on all their rich potential and proceeded to do to Tyrone what Tyrone have done to many other teams in the white heat of a championship battle.
The first quarter of the match set the tone for the game with Cork beginning with an intensity and pace that surprised the Ulster champions.
They struggled to live with it, something that has seldom happened to Tyrone since the advent of the Mickey Harte era.
When it came to possession, Cork also surprised Tyrone with the variation in their kick out strategy and their sharpness and hunger when it came to contesting Tyrone’s. Instead of directing his kick outs to his big men in the middle third, as expected, Alan Quirke opted to go short successfully on five occasions using Alan O’Connor, twice, Graham Canty, Noel O’Leary and Donnacha O Connor, his corner forward, and went long to his big men with three others to equally good effect. The vigilance and sheer work rate of the Cork forwards and midfielders on their direct opponents for Pascal McConnell’s kick outs resulted in six being secured, one more than Tyrone managed in the half.
2. IT was obvious from an early stage that Cork were hungrier for battle, attacking the ball with abandon and when breaks were there to be won, invariably a Cork man claimed them, with Paul Kerrigan especially prominent.
His pace carried him out of the middle third and into the danger area on a number of occasions causing huge problems for the Tyrone rearguard.
Indeed, all six of Cork’s young forwards caused hassle for Harte’s side in this area, with each one of them hungry for ball, with each registering a score from play in this half.
If anybody had any doubts that Cork meant business, the sight of Conor Gormally being dispossessed by Goulding in the 18th minute and then helplessly looking on as the corner forward nonchalantly knocked the ball between the posts told its own story.
In fairness, Tyrone, as with all good champions, were striving manfully to find a way to stay in the game when the referee harshly send off Alan O’Connor in the 29th minute.
3. ANY prospect Tyrone had of saving this game suffered a further blow with the decision to remove their talisman Brian Dooher along with another stalwart Conor Gormley.
At this stage the pattern had been set for the rest of the game with Cork getting many men behind the ball and defending superbly, (on a few occasions over-zealously and fortunate to go unpunished), and counter-attacking with great pace. Confirmation, if any were needed, that the All-Ireland champions were completely unhinged by the intensity of Cork’s play came in the form of uncharacteristic errors, by PJ Quinn and their most defiant player on the day, Ryan McMenamin, which led to easy scores for Colm O’Neill and Fintan Goold. Tyrone have forced many opposing teams into these type of errors in the past but yesterday Cork gave them a bitter taste of their own medicine.
