‘You can’t beat class’

Cork 1-20 Limerick 0-10

Unfortunately for the large band of travelling support in the 7,223 attendance, that start lasted for just 11 minutes.

Limerick led 0-4 to 0-0 at that stage, capitalising on every chance that came their way, while Cork, were struggling to get a handle on the game There it ended for Limerick, however. Once Timmy McCarthy opened Cork’s account in the 12th minute, it was one-way traffic for the rest of a hugely disappointing contest.

Five points apiece after 24 minutes, 0-12 to 0-5 at the break, and Cork did more or less as they pleased thereafter.

Cork lined out with 11 of their All-Ireland winning line-up (corner-back John Browne played most of that game), and all were again magnificent. Goalkeeper Donal Óg Cusack was faultless, Browne and Diarmuid O’Sullivan utterly dominant in the full-back line, Ronan Curran and new captain Sean Óg Ó hAilpín likewise outside them. Only Mark Keane of the Limerick starting forward sextet scored, and just one of his seven points came from play, a measure of the supremacy of the Cork defence. At midfield, Tom Kenny and Jerry O’Connor ran the show, with the usual quota of points thrown in.

Up front, last year’s championship-winning half-forward line was intact, and Ben O’Connor (1-2), Niall McCarthy (0-3, and an incredible work-rate to boot), Timmy McCarthy (0-2, but worth a lot more), were as dominant as their scoring suggests.

Inside, Joe Deane looked razor-sharp, and one point in the first half was pure genius.

Most of the talk however will be about the four who didn’t play in that All-Ireland final, and most of that discussion will centre around full-forward Neil Ronan.

Like Keane at the other end of the field for Limerick, Ronan is something of a prodigal son, returning after a year in the wilderness (well, Australia, actually); unlike Keane however, all of Ronan’s seven points came from play and, but for the excellence of John Cahill in the Limerick goal, that could well have been 2-7.

Of equal significance however, was the form of corner-back Pat Mulcahy, unlucky to lose out last year because of injury, and the near man-of-the-match performance of wing-back Graham Callinan, from the Glen.

Not content with blotting out completely the threat of Limerick danger-man Niall Moran, Callinan seemed omnipresent, one moment driving forward to the heart of the Limerick defence, the next covering across the half-back line, making himself available for the outlet pass.

“They were magnificent, all the new lads,” agreed new manager John Allen; “it was a very good performance overall. I’m extremely happy with the way they’ve played.

“There’s a professionalism about this team that I’ve never seen in hurling circles before. They’re very dedicated, very diligent, very hard-working. We’ll be back down to training on Tuesday night, we’ll do the same as we did last week, and we’ll be as professional next week as we were in this one.”

Understandably, the reaction of Limerick supremo Padjoe Whelehan was one of acute disappointment.

“It’s a setback, we’ve done a lot of work. We’ve got a good lot of work done, train hard, but you can’t beat class, and Cork were class today.”

Only two men emerged with any real credit for Limerick, keeper John Cahill and captain Ollie Moran.

“Very disappointing,” was Moran’s reaction. “We came down here with high hopes, started off very encouragingly, but then they started running at us and we didn’t seem to have any game-plan to come to grips with that. That was disappointing. We seemed to be grasping at straws, we had to concede frees to try and stop them coming through, but they got a run on us, left us chasing shadows.”

The bad news for the rest of hurling however, is that, according to captain Sean Óg Ó hAilpín, Cork haven’t even begun to stretch their legs yet this year. “I’m delighted with the win, it was a good old blow-out for us, but we’re probably a couple of months behind where everyone else is at this stage, in terms of preparation. Other counties have a lot done already, we’re only just back from holidays, started training in the last two weeks. Our aim is to be as competitive as we can be in the League, while blooding some new guys, try and catch up on the training we’ve lost. Today was promising, but that’s all.”

Scorers: Cork: N. Ronan 0-7; B. O’Connor 1-1 (0-1 free); N. McCarthy 0-3; J. Deane 0-3 (0-1 free); T. McCarthy 0-2; J. O’Connor 0-2; T. Kenny, K. Murphy, 0-1 each. Limerick: M. Keane 0-7 (0-5 frees, 0-1 65); P. Tobin, A. O’Connor, P. O’Dwyer, 0-1 each.

CORK: Donal Óg Cusack; J. Browne, D. O’Sullivan, P. Mulcahy; G. Callinan, R. Curran, Sean Óg Ó hAilpin (c); T. Kenny, J. O’Connor; B. O’Connor, N. McCarthy, T. McCarthy; J. O’Callaghan, N. Ronan, J. Deane. Subs: K. Murphy (O’Callaghan yellow card, 27); S. Gardiner (J. O’Connor inj. 50); J. Bowles (T. McCarthy 64); R. McGregor (Kenny 66); P. Kelly (Ó hAilpin 67); B. Corcoran (N. McCarthy yellow card 70).

LIMERICK: J. Cahill; D. Reale, B. Geary, M. Cahill; O. Moran (c), TJ Ryan, P. Lawlor; D. O’Grady, P. Tobin; D. Ryan, P. Cahill, N. Moran; A. O’Shaughnessy, JP Sheahan, M. Keane. Subs: P. O’Dwyer (Lawlor inj. 3); A. O’Connor (D. Ryan 35); K. O’Dwyer (Sheahan 61); D. Sheehan (P. Cahill 62).

Referee: S. McMahon (Clare).