Dublin vs Cork

It was one of those evenings when Dean Rock kicked his frees unerringly, Brian Fenton popped his scores stylishly and their greater sense of cohesion generally ...

Ultimately that was the complete winning and losing of the game – in the third quarter we just couldn’t make the ball stick and Dublin powered on. Instead, it was Dublin who tacked on the first five points of the second period. “There was a nice breeze there and we just couldn’t get a grip in the third quarter there. They took 13 shots after the break and kicked 11 points, with Byrne’s wide and a Rock shot off the posts accounting for the others. The pick of the Dublin scores came from Lee Gannon and Seán Bugler steaming from deep. Tom Lahiff finished the best Dublin move of the half after quick hands from Paddy Small and Fenton around the D. Eoghan McSweeney and Cathal O’Mahony were lively too and with Seán Powter throwing in the occasional incision from deep, Cork had the makings of a coherent attacking plan. Farrell wouldn’t reveal what the nature of the injuries are – God forbid the people who pay to support his team would ever be kept up to date on these matters – but he did concede that they were both serious and that time is short. It took us a while to shake the cobwebs but we strung some good passages of play together in the second half and we were a little bit better.” The first half obviously wasn’t what we would have wanted, we picked it up in the second half but probably the four-week lay-off didn’t help. Against better opposition than Cork, it won’t take much to tip the scales against them. Nothing here to scare the horses but Dublin canter on regardless.