Cork outclass Dublin with commanding display

By Daragh Ó Conchúir Cork 3-17 Dublin 1-4

Cork provided plenty of evidence of their well being with a commanding
performance over a completely outclassed Dublin in Saturday’s
TG4 All-Ireland ladies SFC quarter-final. The three-in-a-row chasers
were in charge in all sectors of the field, with Rena Buckley
and Briege Corkery imperious in a frugal defence and Norita Kelly
and Juliet Murphy dominant at midfield, ably supported by the
industrious Nollaig Cleary. With such a platform, the attack was
always likely to profit, even despite the loss of Geraldine O’Flynn
with a head injury after just six minutes. Amanda Murphy proved
a very effective replacement, working hard and scoring 1-2, but
it was the twin threat of Deirdre O’Reilly and Valerie Mulcahy
that really laid waste to the Jackies, scoring 2-10 between them.

When Mulcahy drove the ball past the advancing Cliodhna O’Connor
from a narrow angle in the 10th minute, both players had already
raised white flags as Cork moved into a five-point lead. The impressively
two-footed O’Reilly followed up with three successive scores,
and another brace before half time as the champions powered into
a 1-11 to 0-2 interval lead, Amy McGuinness registering Dublin’s
points at either end of the half. Playing into a strong wind made
absolutely no difference to the Rebelettes in the second period
as they maintained a high tempo right to the end, clearly intent
on laying down a marker to the remaining contenders that they
have no intention of relinquishing their title. Amanda Murphy
had already pointed when Mulcahy deftly finished to the net four
minutes into the second half. Murphy then took advantage of a
misplaced pass to ram the ball to the net four minutes later as
it just kept getting worse for Gerry McGill’s beleaguered outfit.

In truth Dublin were dreadful and were it not for O’Connor between
the posts, it might even have been worse, with the international
rules goalkeeper making a tremendous save from the marauding Mulcahy
at the three-quarter stage. Sinéad Aherne side-footed through
the legs of Cork ‘keeper Elaine Harte immediately afterwards to
raise a green flag having been put through by Mary Nevin, and
though Nevin (free) and Louise Kelly added points, Dublin had
no answer to the overall power of their opponents. Mulcahy (free)
and Mairéad Kelly concluded proceedings with two outstanding scores
before referee Liam McDonagh finally ended Dublin’s misery. “We
got a lot of good scores in the first half which set us up and
we’re happy with the win” the free-scoring O’Reilly said afterwards.
“We really want the three-in-a-row, we’ve been working all year
towards this. It would be a dream come through but we have to
come through the next round first.”

Cork: E Harte; C Walsh, A Walsh, Rena Buckley; L Barrett, B Stack,
B Corkery 0-2; J Murphy, N Kelly; G O’Flynn, L McMahon 0-1, N
Cleary; V Mulcahy 2-3 (0-2f), M O’Connor, D O Reilly 0-7. Subs:
A Murphy 1-2 for O’Flynn inj. (6); M Kelly 0-2 for McMahon (24);
Rhona Buckley for N Kelly (44); S O’Reilly for Corkery (47); C
Foley for Stack (51).

Dublin: C O’Connor; K McGlynn, D Masterson, M Kavanagh; N Hyland,
S McGrath, O Colreavy; F Ní Chorcoráin, S Finnegan; K Hopkins,
M Nevin 0-1(f), A McGuinness 0-2; S Ahearne 1-0, L Kelly 0-1,
AM Murphy. Subs: A Clarke for McGlynn inj. (19); K Kennedy for
Murphy (40); A Greene for Hyland (55).

Referee: L McDonagh (Sligo).