Cork's fast starts have become trademark in All-Ireland final run

Cork manager Pat Ryan said his side have only one way of playing: flat out. 

Brian Hayes of Cork scores his side's first goal past Clare goalkeeper Eibhear Quilligan during the Munster SHC round robin. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

“We're targeting goals all the time, we're targeting fast starts all the time. That’s the goal of it, that’s the game,” said Pat Ryan in the aftermath of their ruthless semi-final skewering of Dublin.

At the county’s All-Ireland final press evening two days later, he expanded on this point and core principle of the group’s.

“From our point of view, what we were looking at was the attitude in the way we started, and the way we hunted down Dublin at the start was really, really good.” Following their second-half fall-off when hammering the 14 men of Tipp by 15 points in late April, the final margin just a five-point improvement on the half-time difference, the Cork manager noted that his team has only one gear and that is “flat out”.

“We can’t be in third or fourth gear, it is not the way we play. We have to be in fifth gear,” he added. And while their second half remains stubbornly inconsistent and rarely found in breach of the speed limit, those fifth gear first-half take-offs have been a centrepiece feature of a campaign where they’ve returned to an All-Ireland final that they led by 1-8 to 0-4 after only 14 minutes this weekend 12 months ago.

Allianz NHL Round 1 29 minutes: Cork 1-11 Wexford 0-2; FT: Cork 2-21 Wexford 0-12 

Cork’s opening game of the season started in similar fashion to their concluding game of the season previous. 1-7 without reply had the visitors to the south-east a dozen clear in the distance before the half hour had even been reached. The 1-1 finish to that scoring sequence belonged to Blarney full-forward Pádraig Power, who a week later would sustain a season-ending shoulder injury.

Allianz NHL Round 2 11 minutes: Cork 0-7 Limerick 0-2; FT: Cork 1-16 Limerick 1-16 

Seven shots, seven scores. On a miserable night down by the Lee, the hosts feasted on Limerick waywardness from the placed-ball, sideline ball, and open play. Following the Shane Kingston white flag to stretch them five clear on 11 minutes, they’d add just one further point across the remainder of the half and found themselves two behind at the break.

Allianz NHL Round 6 26 minutes: Cork 3-5 Clare 0-5; FT: Cork 6-20 Clare 0-23 

In keeping with their entire year, an injury-stricken Clare rearguard lacked resistance and basic cohesion. Brian Hayes showing the cleanest pair of heels to the Clare full-back - Conor Cleary on that occasion - for the batted opening to his hat-trick was a warning sign not heeded for the return championship visit six weeks later.

Allianz NHL Round 7 17 minutes: Cork 2-5 Galway 0-7; FT: Cork 4-22 Galway 0-22 

Neither of the Cork goals were obvious green flags when the finisher first grabbed hold of possession. Brian Hayes’ deceptively quick feet, with his back to the City End goal, took Pádraic Mannion out of the equation and he then sidestepped Joshua Ryan as if the debutant were not there. Darragh Fitzgibbon was outside football’s 40-metre arc when he began the long - and successful - hunt for a second.

Allianz NHL final 27 minutes: Cork 2-13 Tipperary 0-10; FT: Cork 3-24 Tipperary 0-23 

The pyrotechnics from the two previous games weren’t immediately unpacked. Behind at the 11-minute mark and stalemate affairs seven minutes later. Then, fireworks. Many, many fireworks. 2-5 to 0-2 in seven minutes. 2-1 off Tipp puckouts spoiled. Ethan Twomey’s goal right on the stroke of the regulation 35 shoved the interval difference to 13.

Munster SHC Round 1 25 minutes: Cork 2-8 Clare 0-5; FT: Cork 2-24 Clare 3-21 

The red flashlight emoji was in use from the off. In Cork’s first attack, Brian Hayes rounded Darragh Lohan and kicked for green having had the hurley pulled from his hand. A minute later, they pulled him to the ground under a dropping ball into the large parallelogram, unnoticed by Liam Gordon. A delay of the inevitable. On 12 minutes, another Brian Hayes batted goal in Ennis. The entire inside line engineered in tandem for his second 13 minutes further on.

Munster SHC Round 2 16 minutes: Cork 3-6 Tipperary 0-3; FT: Cork 4-27 Tipperary 0-24 

If the suspicion was that the fixture was killed stone dead by the opening minute dismissal of Darragh McCarthy, there wasn’t a pulse to be found when Alan Connolly continued his penchant for raising green against the blue and gold. A fifth goal in three successive outings against the Premier. All six starting Cork forwards on the board and just over a quarter of an hour elapsed.

All-Ireland semi-final 13 minutes: Cork 3-5 Dublin 0-5; FT: Cork 7-26 Dublin 2-21 

Staying with Connolly and staying with green. His delicious one-handed finish 13 minutes and 26 seconds in bettered by just over three minutes Cork’s previous best, from the aforementioned Tipp torching in Munster, for how early in a game their trademark fast start produced three majors.

Tipp stifling needs to be ready to go from as early as the parade.

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