Seamus Harnedy puts gloss on stunning Cork revival

Cork 1-27 Dublin 2-23: It wasn’t exactly instant karma.

Tipperary’s 13-point turnaround in Páirc Uí Rinn was four weeks previous. But there was sweet symmetry for Cork in giving Dublin a taste of the same medicine yesterday.

No such dose is palatable, but this was particularly sour for Dublin who were unfortunate not to earn a free for a clear foul on Mark Schutte prior to Seamus Harnedy’s deciding score in injury-time.

In scoring range for Paul Ryan, a point would have capped a game where they led from the second minute to the 69th. Their nine second-half wides (15 in total) played no small role in their demise either, though.

For Cork, Waterford’s victory in the second semi means they won’t have the opportunity to avenge that loss to Tipperary but Jimmy Barry-Murphy won’t mind that nor the fact they now face the Déise twice in the space of five weeks.

“If it’s Waterford it wouldn’t worry me. It wouldn’t worry Waterford either,” he said before the result of the second semi-final was known.

Cork will take a lot of solace from this Lazarus-like performance.

When David O’Callaghan found the net for Dublin’s second goal in the 18th minute, they were 12 points in the red.

Their half-back line was being pulled out of shape and Dublin were exploiting the space behind them.

For over 40 minutes, Pa Horgan was Cork’s only scorer but, eventually, his inspirational shooting rubbed off on his colleagues and in the final 15 minutes of action, Aidan Walsh - who flourished having been moved from centre to left half back - Conor Lehane (twice), Paudie O’Sullivan and Harnedy all found their mark.

But for the opening half, they were outclassed and appeared to be upset by the re-jigging of personnel due to the late cry-offs Mark Ellis and Cormac Murphy. All bar their full-forward line was impacted with two thirds of the half-back line altered.

Where Cork were uncertain, Dublin were emphatic in their hurling. Operating at centre-forward, Liam Rushe’s inside ball to Mark Schutte in the second minute was all the in-form Cuala man needed to turn and find the net. Dublin then strung three points together in quick succession to go six up. Ger Cunningham’s side were performing nothing like the outfit that were so disappointing in Croke Park last month when Cork accumulated 34 scores, all points.

Here in the first-half they were dangerously sharp and winning the majority of individual battles.

After an 11th minute Harnedy point, Dublin took full advantage of the wind to post four points before O’Callaghan found the corner of Anthony Nash’s net seven minutes later. Dare it be said, they looked ruthless. “There was some great stuff in the first-half,” reviewed Cunningham. “Some of the stuff we’ve taken from the training ground.”

Three Horgan frees brought some composure to Cork’s play and they could have had a goal themselves on the half hour mark when Harnedy was denied by Shane Durkin. Peter Kelly was then level to cut out the danger posed by Horgan when Luke O’Farrell was set to be teed up for a close-range shot.

Trailing 2-15 to 0-12 at half-time, the Cork sideline resisted demands from the stands for heads to roll and there were cool heads in the dressing room at the break. “We just wanted to get back into the game,” reasoned Barry-Murphy.

“We’d had two or three great goal chances we hadn’t taken. It would have been a totally different game if we’d got those. Dublin took the two chances they got, so from that point of view we felt there was openings going to come for us.”

Cork’s comeback wasn’t instantaneous but four Horgan points, three frees, meant the only difference between the sides were the two goals. A couple of excellent Paul Ryan scores put eight between them only for Cork to post the next four scores.

Dublin then had a brief purple patch with three points in a row and were seven to the good with nine minutes of normal time left. However, an O’Callaghan point was their sum total for what remained as they augmented their wide count.

Substitute O’Sullivan’s 64th minute goal, after a tidy one-two combination, was indeed the catalyst for Cork. O’Callaghan’s score followed but then the brilliant Horgan took over again, converting a 65, a point and then a free after Harnedy had been upended.

Lehane struck over the leveller in the 70th minute and the sizeable Cork crowd among the 16,445 attendance were out of their seats when Harnedy sealed it.

Considering where their side were an hour earlier, it felt like a bonus. Dublin might cry robbery but ultimately they weren’t innocents in their downfall.

Scorers for Cork: P Horgan (0-17, 12 frees, 265s);C Lehane (0-4); P O’Sullivan (1-0); S Harnedy (0-3); L O’Farrell, A Cadogan, A Walsh (0-1 each).

Scorers for Dublin: P Ryan (0-7, 4 frees); M Schutte, D O’Callaghan (1-3 each); L Rushe (0-3); C Keaney, J McCaffrey, D Treacy (0-2 each); B Quinn (0-1).

Subs for Cork: B Lawton for S Harnedy (blood, 14-16); P O’Sullivan for A Cadogan (51); A Spillane for L O’Farrell (63); B Lawton for D Kearney (67).

Subs for Dublin: B Quinn for J McCaffrey (54); C Cronin for R O’Dwyer (62); O O’Rourke for D Treacy (67).

CORK: A Nash; S O’Neill, D Cahalane, W Kearney; L McLoughlin, A Walsh, S McDonnell; D Kearney, R O’Shea; C Lehane, S Harnedy, B Cooper; A Cadogan, L O’Farrell, P Horgan.DUBLIN: G Maguire; C O’Callaghan, P Kelly, P Schutte; S Durkin, C Crummey, C Keaney; J McCaffrey, N McMorrow; R O’Dwyer, L Rushe, P Ryan; D O’Callaghan, M Schutte, D Treacy.Referee: J Owens (Wexford)