Cork cruise to victory over Antrim

All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Quarter Final:
Cork 1-25 Antrim 0-19

Cork cruised into the semi-finals of the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship with a 1-25 to 0-19 defeat of Antrim at Croke Park on Sunday afternoon.

Despite emerging nine-point winners, it was a far from convincing performance from the Rebels, who scored 1-2 in first half injury time to lead by eight points at the break.

Antrim will feel somewhat disappointed that they didn’t run their more illustrious opponents closer, but they failed to take convert a surfeit of second half possession into scores. The Saffrons had three goal chances after the break, but they failed to breach an impressive Cork defence.

Antrim were completely reliant on Liam Watson (0-6) and Neil McManus (0-10) for scores, with just one point coming from the remainder of their attack.

Cork appeared to play for much of the game on autopilot, but, to their credit, they flexed their muscles any time it looked like the Ulstermen were getting too close on the scoreboard.

After a lacklustre opening 34 minutes, Cork led by 0-14 to 0-11 before Aisake Ó hAilpín set up Niall McCarthy for a well-worked goal. Ben O’Connor pitched in with two more points late in the half and Cork were, realistically, already out of reach, although Antrim did come back valiantly for periods of the second half.

The feeling was that Antrim would need a good start and any such hopes were quickly eroded when Cork scored two points from play inside the first minute. Paudie O’Sullivan, named in the side ahead of Pat Horgan, justified his selection with the opener and Cathal Naughton delivered a second early blow seconds later.

The portents were not good for the Saffrons when Aisake Ó hAilpín muscled past Cormac Donnelly, before opting to tap over the bar when he might just as easily have hammered home a trademark goal. When Ben O’Connor opened his account in the seventh minute, Cork were already four points clear.

However, Dinny Cahill’s men displayed the resilience that has been their calling card this year by hitting the next three scores – a pair of frees from Neil McManus and a fine Karl McKeegan strike from play.

The game then settled down after a harum scarum opening 12 minutes. Liam Watson, who would finish the half with four points from play, was causing the Cork full-back line problems; he necklaced a pair of scores of real quality together in response to Niall McCarthy’s brace for the Rebels as Antrim went toe-to-toe with their more illustrious rivals.

Antrim’s reliance on Watson and their excellent free taker, McManus, was manifest, while Cork’s spread of scorers, in contrast to their Munster final replay defeat to Waterford, was impressive, as Niall McCarthy and Kieran Murphy lent scoring support to Ó hAilpín and O’Sullivan in the full-forward line.

Cork moved five points clear, 0-12 to 0-7, in the 27th minute when Tom Kenny took advantage of a stray pass in the Antrim defence. However, Watson and McManus were on hand to cut the gap to just three points with the half-time break looming.

But Cork showed their true class by scoring 1-2 in added time to blow the Ulster champions’ challenge apart. Cork’s goal came, as has so often been the case this year, after a high ball was fielded by Ó hAilpín and he fed the onrushing Niall McCarthy, who batted the ball low past Chris O’Connell, the Antrim goalkeeper.

Ben O’Connor added a pair of frees in junk time to further warp the scoreline, as the Rebels went into the half-time break with a somewhat unmerited 1-16 to 0-11 lead.

Watson, who adorned the first half so wonderfully, opened the second half with arguably the score of the game, threading the ball over the bar from an acute angle. McManus drove over his sixth score from a placed ball and the gap was back down to five points.

They would have been even closer had Kenny not been so alert in saving a 21-yard free from Watson whose shot screamed past Donal Óg Cusack and seemed bound for the back of the net. The Cork goal remained intact and Denis Walsh’s side responded with three successive scores after McManus had scored from the resultant ’65.

The Ulster men had another goal chance in the 53rd minute, when McManus won a clean ball in the Cork square, but he opted to shoot for goal amid a thicket of players and his effort was, ineviatably, blocked down and trickled out for a ’65. It was the recurring theme of Antrim’s afternoon; three times they were denied goals in the second half by a mixture of excellent Cork defending and their own naivety.

Watson again tried to breach a seemingly impregnable Cork defence with six minutes remaining, his shot from another 21-yeard free this time blocked on the line by Eoin Cadogan. It was cruel luck on the underdogs.

Watson, who contributed six points from play, was sent off in the 66th minute for a second yellow card after an incident involving John Gardiner.

Cork finished with late scores from Kieran Murphy, Naughton and substitute William Egan to run out convincing nine-point winners.

Cork: D Óg Cusack; S Murphy, E Cadogan, B Murphy; J Gardiner 0-3 (0-3f), R Curran, R Ryan; T Kenny 0-2, C Naughton 0-2; B O’Connor 0-6 (0-4f), M Cussen, N McCarthy 1-2; P O’Sullivan 0-3, A Ó hAilpín 0-1, K Murphy 0-4.

Subs for Cork: P Horgan for Ó hAilpín ’50, P Cronin for Cussen ’55, W Egan 0-1 for McCarthy ’64.

Antrim: C O’Connell; K McGourty, C Donnelly, S Delargy; P Shiels, J Campbell 0-2, C Herron; S McNaughton 0-1, K Stewart; S McCrory, N McManus 0-10 (0-6f, 0-3 ’65), T McCann; PJ O’Connell, L Watson 0-6, K McKeegan 0-1.

Subs for Antrim: J McKeague for P Shiels ’22, B McFall for T McCann (HT), M Herron for McKeague ’52, D Hamill for O’Connell ’55, E McCloskey for McNaughton ’71.

Referee: Michael Wadding (Wexford)