Donegal’s day but Cork go down fighting

Donegal 0-21 Cork 1-15: Death with dignity for Cork but a telling reminder of how the ways things used to be. Six years ago, this was the way they won games: grinding down the opposition, submitting them to their will, drawing them into making pressurised decisions.

Here it was they who buckled to Donegal’s command as the Ulster runners-up’s experience told so much in the final quarter.

A combined age of 66, it was the youthful Kilcar triumvirate of Paddy McBrearty and the McHugh cousins, Ryan and Eoin, that contributed a whopping 16 of Donegal’s 21 points. However, it was the introduction of Christy Toye (33), Leo McLoone (27) and Ryan’s older brother Mark (25) that reinforced Donegal as they went about demonstrating their superiority in general play in that period on the scoreboard.