Cork hurlers and footballers moving in right direction

Ben O’Connor’s tenure as Cork manager commenced with a comfortable victory over Waterford at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday.

The 14-point margin shows the Rebels won't surrender their league crown lightly.

Given Waterford were missing their entire Ballygunner contingent, the result was no surprise, but even taking this into account, it was hard not to be impressed by how quickly and professionally Cork got the job done.

Declan Dalton was largely wing-forward in Pat Ryan’s Cork team for the past two years but on Sunday, we got to see him play in his best position at 14. He rifled over four quality points from play in the 42 minutes he was on the pitch, as well as his unsavable first-half penalty, while he also set up Alan Connolly’s opener.

Debutant William Buckley was TG4 Man of the Match and few would argue given his typical livewire display, popping up all over the Cork forward line to pilfer an impressive 1-4 from play. 

I think it is safe to say that we will see the St Finbarr’s man a lot this year.

Cork always looked in control but Buckley’s 46th-minute goal was still needed to cancel out the Déise penalty a minute earlier and kill off any potential comeback.

Diarmuid Healy chipped away with four impressive points and Shane Barrett clipped over three early on. Both are extremely important parts of Cork’s attack.

LESSON LEARNED

A lot of observers will have noted the significance of Eoin Roche’s introduction in the 50th minute as he replaced Daire O’Leary seconds after the Watergrasshill full-back had been yellow-carded. That was certainly a case of a hard-earned lesson being learned with that one.

O’Leary will be happy with his outing, setting the tone when he pickpocketed his man in the opening minute to start the move that ended with Cork’s first point from Dalton.

Robert Downey was back to his best in the first half. He ruled the roost while the game was still in the melting pot, while Mark Coleman oozed class for the entire 70 minutes.

O’Connor used his bench well, giving good game time to some of the newer members of the panel. Alan Walsh has been tearing it up this month for MTU and Cork and even if he did not quite get motoring in this one, he'll surely get more opportunities.

Fellow Duhallow man Hugh O’Connor came on in the 47th minute and he definitely showed that he has something to offer with his impressive cameo. 

He clipped over one crisp point while also getting on a lot of ball.

Micheál Mullins replaced his Glen Rovers clubmate in the 55th minute and caught the eye. He almost got the score of the game after one quality move that he instigated himself from the corner-back position.

Overall, it was a job well done by all.

If they can get another result up in Galway next Saturday night, their league title defence will certainly be up and running.

HIGH DRAMA

Considering the ease of the victory for the hurlers, the curtain-raiser was perhaps much more interesting. It certainly was more dramatic.

John Cleary’s Cork football team came from seven down late on against Cavan to prevail by a single point thanks to Steven Sherlock’s superb late winner.

Serious kudos have to be given to Cork for the manner in which they just would not accept defeat. 

At the same time, serious questions have to be asked as to why and how they found themselves in such a predicament in the first place.

Tyrone and Derry were hot favourites to be promoted straight back up to Division 1 but Tyrone drew with Kildare in Omagh on Saturday night, while Derry lost their game to Meath, so Division 2 is right open now.

Obviously, a defeat at home in Round 1 would have completely derailed that notion, but Cork’s late escape means that we can still talk of promotion right now, even if everyone involved knows that improvements are required.