Cork v Offaly: Rebels roll into another league final

Cork 6-26 Offaly 0-20

Twenty-four points separated the sides in the end as Cork advanced to the final of the Allianz Hurling League with victory over Offaly at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday night.

Having gone 27 years without the league title before last year’s win, Ben O’Connor’s side now have a chance to go back-to-back, albeit with the toughest of challenges, an away clash with Limerick in a fortnight.

While one run came to an end – Cork’s previous six league games at the venue had broken the 20,000 mark but this fell just short at 19,653 – the Rebels remain unbeaten against Offaly since 2003, while they have now gone 11 league and championship matches against Leinster opposition without losing.

They were sequences that never looked like ending but Cork did have improve from a mundane first quarter.

Cork went into the game knowing that any kind of positive result against an already-relegated Offaly would be sufficient to make it back to the final – as matters transpired, Limerick’s win over Galway meant that not even a defeat would not have prevented Cork advancing.

Such a state of affairs was perhaps a reason for the somewhat pedestrian first half, with the lead only two points, 1-5 to 0-6, after 21 minutes before Cork put together five points in a row, Alan Connolly’s frees easing them clear. Prior to that, they had established an early cushion as Barry Walsh got the opening goal inside five minutes.

Then, as the game moved towards injury time, some inspiration. Tim O’Mahony produced a lovely flick to take down an Offaly puckout and he worked the ball to Hugh O’Connor on the right wing. The Newmarket man used his pace well initially before cutting back and lofting a delivery goalwards, allowing Brian Hayes to touch the ball to the net.

In jig-time, a ten-point led became 13 as a ruck close to the Offaly game ended with the ball squirting out to an unmarked Darragh Fitzgibbon and he coolly finished beyond Liam Hoare, who had made three good saves prior to that.

Offaly full-forward Brian Duignan’s third of the evening left it 3-10 to 0-7 at half-time and, while the opening stages of the second half were even – with Cork subs William Buckley and Declan Dalton both on target – the dam soon burst.

The fourth goal arrived in the 45th minute, with Mark Coleman’s low searching delivery perfect for Hayes to display fine stickwork before his trademark batted finish; after Fitzgibbon converted a free, he got his second and Cork’s fifth goal, with Hoare a bit unfortunate not to save.

Cork were in free-flow mode by this stage and O’Mahony finished with a flourish on 50 minutes to made it 6-18 to 0-12. From there, the game played out at practice-match tempo, with Cork sub Pádraig Power marking his return after more than a year with a pair of points while Robbie O’Flynn almost had another goal at the death but Hoare denied him.

Scorers for Cork: A Connolly 0-8 f, D Fitzgibbon 2-2 (0-1 f), B Hayes 2-1, M Coleman 0-3, B Walsh, T O’Mahony 1-0 each, S Barrett, P Power, D Dalton (0-1 f), W Buckley 0-2 each, E Downey, B Keating, H O’Connor, R O’Flynn 0-1 each.

Offaly: A Screeney 0-7 (0-4 f), D Ravenhill 0-4, B Duignan 0-3, D Bourke 0-2, S Bourke, B Kavanagh, R Ravenhill, J Clancy 0-1 each.

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

Subs: D Dalton for Connolly, W Buckley for Walsh (both half-time), R O’Flynn for Hayes (48), P Power for Fitzgibbon (53), B Keating for O’Mahony (59).

OFFALY: L Hoare; C King, B Conneely, B Kavanagh; R Ravenhill, K Sampson, D Shirley; E Kelly, D Ravenhill; T Guinan, D Bourke, C Doyle; O Kelly, B Duignan, A Screeney.

Subs: C Spain for E Kelly, L Nolan for O Kelly (both half-time), S Bourke for King (46), J Clancy for Doyle (54), E Cahill for Guinan (62).

Referee: J Murphy (Limerick).