Cork come back from the dead to beat Tyrone to All-Ireland minor football title

REBEL ROAR: Joe Miskella of Cork lifts the cup. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

All-Ireland MFC final: Cork 2-16 Tyrone 1-16 

Cork are All-Ireland minor football champions for the first time in seven years after a scarcely believable comeback win over Tyrone’s reigning champions in Newbridge.

The Ulster champions dominated the first-half and the opening exchanges after the break on the way to building up a nine-point lead before Keith Ricken’s boys found a way to breathe new life into the game and draw level with four minutes to go.

Both sides had chances to put themselves into a winning position after that in a dramatic end game, but it was a brilliant goal from Eoghan Aherne on the stroke of full-time that proved the difference in a game watched by a huge Cork crowd.

The eventual winners outscored their opponents 2-9 to 0-3 in the last 25 minutes of play. No game seems to be over in this new football era but this was still a remarkable turnaround in fortunes.

Boys became men on the biggest stage of all.

Alex O'Herlihy of Cork celebrates after scoring his side's first goal. Pic: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile

Cork got some money in the bank early on with two superb scores from Conrad Murphy and captain Joe Miskella but they were both deposits made under the sort of pressure that would make things so difficult for the Munster champions for much of the day.

The threat of Tyrone’s full-forward line of Conan Canavan – nephew of you know who – Matthew F Daly and Vincent Gormley was borne out by their efforts, but they were the spearhead profiting off tigerish work elsewhere.

Time and again Cork were stripped of ball as they got in to the Tyrone half and there was a period midway through the first-half when the Ulster side claimed five Cork kickouts in a row. Full court press stuff.

The reigning champions claimed 1-8 to a solitary point against between the tenth and 25th minutes, the goal rounding it off and coming from a cool-as-ice penalty kick by Aodhan Corry after Gormley had been taken down by a backtracking Conor Downing.

Ruairi O’Neill had found the crossbar with a point attempt that almost lobbed Rory Twohig in the Cork goal as well, but Cork had their own regrets as they tried to find a way back towards even keel as the opening period stretched out.

Cork's Kieran O'Shea. Pic: Bryan Keane/Inpho

The Tyrone goal came straight after Miskella rattled the bar with a shot at the other end and Jacob Barry had an opening suffocated by the Tyrone goalkeeper as well. Other what ifs? Twohig missing a few dead balls and Ben Hegarty shaving a post.

It all left Cork trailing 1-10 to 0-6 and with a mountain to climb on the Kildare plains come the break. They didn’t look like making it at the start of a second period that found them a tad flat and conceding three of the first four scores.

And then something happened.

Miskella landed a point and then a huge two-pointer straight after it. Within seconds, a Hegarty point attempt dropped short and the rebound was pinned to the back of the net by substitute Alex O’Herlihy who made a huge impact.

Twohig stopped a shot with his legs at one end, Aherne clipped his third free over at the other. Now everything seemed to be going Cork’s way and it left them on 1-12 and just a point behind. All this had happened inside five minutes.

The big Cork crowd had its cue.

Tyrone hit back with the next two points but the momentum had turned too far in the opposite direction by now and the superb Miskella played a long ball that ultimately fell to Aherne for the clincher.

Astonishing and the inevitable pitch invasion followed, many of them fans who had experienced the other end of it in Croke Park the day before when the senior hurler’s ambitions had come to nought.

Cork's Tom Whooley powers past the Tyrone challenge of Matthew J Daly. Pic: Bryan Keane, Inpho

Scorers for Cork: E Aherne (1-5, 4f); J Miskella (0-5, 2 2ptr); A O’Herlihy (1-1); T Wholley (0-2); B Hegarty (0-1f), C Murphy and J Barry (both 0-1).

Scorers for Tyrone: V Gormley (0-6, 1 2ptr); C Canavan (0-3f, 1 2ptr); A Corry (1-0 pen); MF Daly (0-3); B Og McGuckian (0-3, 1f); T Gallen (0-1).

CORK: R Twohig; R McCormack, A O’Sullivan, C Garvey; D O’Sullivan, C Downing, E Lynch; K O’Shea, C Murphy; E Aherne, B Hegarty, J Miskella; T Whooley, J Barry, D Herlihy.

Subs for Cork: G Oronsaye for Garvey (22); A O’Herlihy for Herlihy (HT); P Kelly for O’Sullivan (36); K O’Donovan for Barry (48); D O’Mahony for Murphy (64).

TYRONE: R O’Neill; T McCarron, J Maguire, A Farley; MJ Daly, A Corry, C Fyffe; T Gallen, C Meenan; L O’Connor, B Og McGuckian, R O’Neill; C Canavan, MF Daly, C Gormley.

Subs for Tyrone: C Shevlin for Fyffe (28); C McKeown for Canavan (54); F Quinn for O’Neill (56); C McKee for O’Connor (58).

Referee: S Mulhare (Laois).