All-Ireland SHC: Cork into All-Ireland final after superb win over Limerick

Cork 1-28 

Limerick 0-29 

An All-Ireland final awaits for Cork after the ended Limerick's quest for five in a row in Sunday's All-Ireland SHC semi-final at Croke Park.

A superb performance of 1-4 from Brian Hayes, capped by a first-half goal, was the highlight for Pat Ryan's side but this was a true team display, as they came from two points down at half-time to overcome the Shannonsiders.

During their imperious run, Limerick’s play was characterised by the ‘championship quarter’, where they took control of a game after half-time following a close first half.

At Croke Park on Sunday, the champions looked to have effected that mechanism earlier than usual as a 1-8 to 0-5 deficit after 20 minutes was turned into an interval lead of 0-14 to 1-11. After such a good start, Cork looked to be under pressure – this was Limerick in Croke Park, where the narrative was that they became a different animal.

Their story there included two famous wins over Cork, but the Rebels showed no scar tissue from such setbacks and instead they set about producing the championship quarter.

In the first 13 minutes after the restart, Cork took ten shots and they scored them all, a haul that included a landmark 700th championship point for Patrick Horgan after a scoreless first half while Shane Barrett built on a good score in first-half injury time to send over two more.

Brian Hayes’s third point made it 1-19 to 0-19 on 44 and, when Limerick’s Cathal O’Neill couldn’t end a good run with a point in reply, a quick puckout from Patrick Collins to Declan Dalton allowed him to fire over his third.

Moments later, Collins saved to deny Gearóid Hegarty a goal, with Aaron Gillane unable to fire home the rebound. When Cork got the ball away, Dalton was again the outlet and he made it 1-21 to 0-19.

The belief in Cork was clear from the huge numbers that had travelled but now the ‘Rebels!’ chant reverberated around Croke Park. Gillane pulled one back for Limerick but two from Harnedy sandwiched another from Horgan and the lead was seven with 19 minutes left.

Champions die hard and Limerick are perhaps the most acute example of that. While some of their big hitters failed to perform and reinforcements were called upon, they didn’t panic and continued to send over the points. Subs Shane O’Brien and Adam English had two each, Gillane sent over the frees that came and Hegarty’s first point of the day left two in it, 1-28 to 0-29, with two minutes left.

Limerick had chances to cut that further but shot wide, while Shane Barrett was unlucky to hit the post with Nickie Quaid blocking Horgan’s follow-up. A lofted Cathal O’Neill delivery hit off Aaron Gillane, under pressure from Seán O’Donoghue and trickled wide.

Cork started with the 15 players selected on Thursday night but there was a positional switch as Tim O’Mahony moved to midfield alongside Darragh Fitzgibbon. Ciarán Joyce dropped to the half-back line, picking up Tom Morrissey, with Mark Coleman marking Cathal O’Neill on the other flank while centre-back Robert Downey picked up Gearóid Hegarty.

Though Aaron Gillane had Limerick in front with a first-minute point, some of their early shooting was wayward and Cork were able to push into a 0-4 to 0-1 lead, Darragh Fitzgibbon opening up the three-point lead in the seventh minute after a turnover.

Limerick came back to level with good points from O’Neill and Séamus Flanagan and by the 14th minute it was 0-6 each following a David Reidy point.

Cork were back in front as Niall O’Leary fed Séamus Harnedy for a point and the lead became four as they struck for the first goal. Shane Barrett was the creator, his pass finding Brian Hayes in space and he produced a lovely finish beyond Nickie Quaid.

That made it 1-7 to 0-5 in the 18th minute and soon after that Cork thought they had another as Coleman’s delivery was won by Alan Connolly, who drove forward and fed Hayes for a lovely finish but referee Thomas Walsh deemed the final pass to have been a throw.

Even so, Hayes was on hand to make it 1-8 to 0-5 after good work from O’Leary and Fitzgibbon but Limerick dominated the last quarter-of-an-hour before half-time.

With their half-back line winning a lot of dirty ball and Cork unable to mine as much joy from long puckouts as in the Munster SHC game at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, they made it count at the other end.

Gillane – denied by a great Patrick Collins save shortly beforehand – tied the game with his fourth point in the 27th minute before Reidy had them back in front for the first time since the opening stages. While Connolly did stem the flow with his second point, a long-range Diarmaid Byrnes free and Reidy’s third had the champions three to the good, 0-16 to 1-10 as the first half moved into its third and final minute of injury time.

It left Cork in touch and they pushed on brilliantly in the second half.

Scorers for Cork: B Hayes 1-4, P Horgan 0-5 (0-3f), S Harnedy, D Dalton (0-2f) 0-4 each, S Barrett, D Fitzgibbon, A Connolly 0-3 each, R Downey, M Coleman 0-1 each.

Limerick: A Gillane 0-10 (0-4f), D Reidy, C O’Neill, D Byrnes (0-2f) 0-3 each, A English, S O’Brien, T Morrissey 0-2 each, S Flanagan, C Lynch, G Hegarty, K Hayes 0-1 each.

CORK: P Collins; S O’Donoghue, E Downey, N O’Leary; M Coleman, R Downey, C Joyce; T O’Mahony, D Fitzgibbon; D Dalton, S Barrett, S Harnedy; P Horgan, A Connolly, B Hayes.

Subs: S Kingston for Horgan (34-35, temp), E Twomey for O’Mahony (59), S Kingston for Dalton (62), R O’Flynn for Harnedy (67), P Power for Horgan (70+2).

LIMERICK: N Quaid; S Finn, M Casey, D Morrissey; D Byrnes, D Hannon, K Hayes; W O’Donoghue, C Lynch; T Morrissey, G Hegarty, C O’Neill; D Reidy, S Flanagan, A Gillane.

Subs: S O’Brien for Flanagan (52), A English for Reidy, D O’Donovan for O’Donoghue (both 54), A O’Connor for T Morrissey (63).

Referee: T Walsh (Waterford).