Cork stage powerful comeback to foil Faithful County

Cork 2-11, Offaly 2-5

Played before a paltry attendance of about 300, Cork looked to be heading for the exit door when they trailed their opponents 2-5 to 0-6 after 50 minutes, but a couple of important sideline moves had the desired effect and they finished in style to set up a semi-final meeting against the defending champions Kilkenny on August 17.

Cork coach Denis Ring tried to explain the very poor standard of the first half, admitting: “It was a very negative game, but improved in the second half. In typical Offaly style, they got in some great blocks, hooks and closed us down which was very hard to play against. You have to admire them for that.

“With ten minutes to go, we looked dead and buried and one wondered if they had anything behind that O2 symbol on the jersey. Thankfully they showed they had. The couple of substitutions and positional switches worked, and we thundered into the game in the closing minutes to pull it out of the fire. A six point winning margin is a bit flattering to us, but it’s all about winning when you reach this stage of the championship, but it goes without saying that we’ll have to improve greatly if we are to progress any further.” Understandably, Offaly were gutted. They had outplayed Cork for most of the game, but failed to hold out in the face of the enormous pressure applied in the closing minutes.

Both sides opted to play with no full forward which resulted in a logjam around the middle of the field.

Cork got the perfect start with a Ger O’Leary point after just 10 seconds but Offaly, with Paul Cleary and Neil Rogers prominent in defence, struck back with a goal from Derek Molloy in the third minute and they held the upper hand for the rest of the half to lead 1-2 to 0-4 at the break.

In that opening half Cork wasted a lot of scoring chances, chalking up 10 wides to Offaly’s six. But for some magnificent defending by Michael Aherne and Shane O’Neill, the Munster side would have been in far more serious trouble.

Despite having the wind to their back in the second half the situation deteriorated for Cork when Eamon Lee set up Declan Cordial for a goal in the 33rd minute and, when impressive Cordial added a point shortly afterwards, the Faithful County led 2-3 to 0-4 and were looking good for another crack off Kilkenny.

By now both sides had reverted back to conventional full forward lines, before Cork made those decisive moves which ultimately won them the game.

They brought on Ronan Conway for the out of touch Brian Canty, but more importantly switched Kevin Canty to full forward where he proceeded to turn the game Cork’s way.

With eight minutes to go, Offaly were holding onto their five point lead before Canty won a 20 metre free straight in front of the goal. Up came the outstanding Michael Aherne and he drilled the free straight and true for a goal.

Mark Harrington began to show his prowess at midfield and sensing victory Cork threw everything at Offaly in those hectic closing minutes and after Brian Clifford came forward to tie the game with a point, Canty plucked Eoin Manning’s long delivery out of the sky before rattling the net. How the tide had turned. Cork finished with a succession of points, the best being wing back Sean Cronin’s effort. However, they’ll hardly need reminding that a repeat of this effort won’t be god enough against Kilkenny in three weeks time.

Scorers for Cork; M. Aherne (free), K. Canty 1-0 each; B. Canty (frees), M. Harrington (0-1 free), R. Conway 0-2 each; G. O’Leary, B. Barry, B. Clifford, S. Cronin, A. Ó hAilpín (free) 0-1 each.

Offaly; D. Cordial 1-3 (0-2 frees); D. Molloy 1-0; C. Parlon, J. Bergin 0-1 each.

CORK: E. O’Sullivan; E. O’Sullivan, N. Horgan, S. O’Neill; S. Cronin, M. Aherne, B. Clifford; M. Harrington, B. Coleman; B. Barry, K. Canty, G. O’Leary; B. Canty, J. Bowles, M. Allen.

Subs. R. Conway for Allen; A. Ó Hailpín for B. Canty; O. Manning for O’Leary.

OFFALY: L. Bevans; D. Hoctor, P. Cleary, C. O’Meara; N. Rogers, D. Hayden, H. Ryan; J. Keane, K. Sadler; G. O’Grady, J. Bergin, C. Parlon; E. Lee, D. Cordial, D. Molloy.

Sub. E. Bevans for O’Grady.

Referee: S. Roche (Tipperary).