Tyrone Claim Title Number 8

All Ireland Minor Football Championship Final:
Tyrone 1-13 Cork 1-12

Tyrone won their eighth ESB GAA Football All-Ireland Minor title thanks to a 1-13 to 1-12 defeat of Cork at Croke Park on Sunday. The Red Hands led by eight points with six minutes left, but as we well know, this Cork team doesn’t know when it’s beaten and they staged yet another dramatic late recovery to ensure a thrilling finale.

However, there was to be no repeat of the Rebels’ semi-final comeback win over Galway, as Tyrone held on to win by a single point after Kevin Hallissey had hit the net for Cork after 55 minutes. Dan MacEoin, who finished with 0-5 from play, was brilliant for Cork in the closing minutes – as was influential sub Stephen O’Mahony – but Cork’s hopes were dashed when Ronan O’Neill pointed in the last minute to save the day for Tyrone. MacEoin hit back with an injury time response for the Rebels but try as they might, they could not find an equaliser.

Tyrone were favourites going into the game and they justified that tag by steaming into a 1-5 to 0-0 lead by the 20th minute mark. As starts go, it couldn’t have gone much worse for the Rebels, who rejigged their defence from the start, with Tomás Clancy playing in the full-back line and Mathew O’Shea lining out at centre-back. Brian Cuthbert’s side struggled in defence, however, and conceded two early points, as Niall Sludden and John McCullagh put the Red Hands into the lead. McCullagh, the Tyrone full-forward, added his second of the game, before Eunan Deeney and Thomas Canavan increased their lead to five.

Just when it looked like it couldn’t get much worse for Cork it did. Much worse. A long ball into the full-forward line from Ronán Ó Neill crept over the last line of defence and was palmed away by David Hanrahan, the Cork goalkeeper, falling kindly for Harry Óg Conlon, who tapped the ball into the empty net. Tyrone led by 1-5 to 0-0 with 20 minutes on the clock.

To Cork’s credit, they hit back with five successive scores to reduce the gap to three by the 29th minute. Brian Hurley initiated the Cork recovery with a point from a free before MacEoin kicked the first of two fine scores from play.

Hurley was to land three scores from placed balls in that purple patch, but Cork might have had a greater return when Hallissey was presented with a goal chance just before the break. The impressive John O’Rourke saw his shot blocked and the ball fell for Hallissey, who drove his effort over the bar when he might just as easily have raised a green flag. Tyrone finished the half with centre-back Michael Donaghy landing a score from play to give his side a 1-6 to 0-5 lead at the break.

Again, Tyrone made the early running on the resumption of play, McCullagh firing his third of the afternoon and O’Neill opening his account with a free. Cork hit back. MacEoin snatched a second fine score, while O’Rourke had Cork within four when he landed his first of the day.

It was a short-lived revival, though, as Tyrone eased ahead with another scoring burst, McCullagh again among the scorers as he struck his fourth to give the Red Hands a seemingly unassailable 1-12 to 0-7 lead with 10 minutes left. However, just as Cork have done on three other occasions this year, they staged a remarkable late recovery. This time, though, it was not to be enough.
O’Mahony, a 49th minute sub, broke down a long ball for his team-mate, Hallissey, who cracked a brilliant low shot to the back of the net to start the revival. Cork hit the next three points to bring the gap back to just a single score with a minute left on the clock, but their momentum was halted when Conlon broke clear and had his shot superbly saved by Cork goalkeeper Hanrahan. The rebound fell for O’Neill who fired over what looked like the insurance score.

Although MacEoin did hit his fifth point of the day in the 62nd minute, it was too late and Tyrone celebrated their second success in the grade in the last three years.

TYRONE: C Spiers; S McGarrity, C Clarke, HP McGeary; N Sludden (0-1), M Donaghy (0-1), E Deeney (0-1); H Óg Conlon (1-0), C Grugan (0-2); R Donnelly, T Canavan (0-1 free), R Devlin; S Tierney, J McCullagh (0-4), R Ó Néill (0-2, 0-1 free). Subs: P McNulty for Donaghy (40), L Girvan for Devlin (48), D Donnelly for Tierney (54).

CORK: D Hanrahan; J Wall, T Clancy, A Cronin; K Fulignati, M O’Shea, C O’Sullivan; J Burns, D Cahalane; K Hallissey (1-1), T Hegarty, J O’Rourke (0-3); D McEoin (0-5), M Sugrue, B Hurley (0-3 frees). Subs: D Fitzgerald for Hegarty (30), L Connolly for Sugrue (43), D O’Donovan for Fulignati (44), S O’Mahony for O’Sullivan (49), K Sheehan for O’Rourke (60).

Referee: Michael Duffy (Sligeach)