Cork 4-25
Offaly 3-19
JOHNNY CAROLAN REPORTS
WHILE Cork eased into the All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals with a nine-point victory over Offaly at Glenisk O’Connor Park on Saturday, manager Pat Ryan was far from pleased with the performance.
Two late Offaly goals reduced the margin of victory but there was never really a stage where Cork’s progress to a clash with Dublin looked in doubt. Even so, however, Ryan felt the Rebels’ display left a lot to be desired.
‘Obviously, it was a disappointing performance from our side of it,’ he said.
‘There were some good passages of hurling and we opened them up at times but it was just very sloppy – not breaking the tackle enough, throwing balls over our heads that weren’t there and we didn't work hard enough on what we should have done.
‘In fairness to Offaly, they were very good, they were very well set-up. You could see they had momentum behind them in the way the county is going at the moment and they tore into our fellas.
‘Like any inter-county team, if you don’t match them with energy and with workrate, the game is going to be tight.’
Cork forward Patrick Horgan takes on the Offaly defence.(Photo: George Hatchell)
While Brian Hayes had an early goal to settle Cork and Shane Barrett was lively throughout the first half, Cork’s play was somewhat rusty after four weeks of inactivity and a dogged Offaly stayed with them for long periods, with Eoghan Cahill on form from frees.
A goal from Barrett on 22 minutes gave Cork breathing space as it made it 2-9 to 0-9 and further points followed from Niall O’Leary and Declan Dalton. The same eight-point gap pertained at half-time, Cork retiring 2-15 to 0-13 to the good.
In the third quarter, Offaly had reduced that to six points, helped by a 41st minute goal as Killian Sampson set up Oisín Kelly for a well-taken goal. On 54, they almost came to within three as Kelly had another chance but Patrick Collins saved brilliantly and Cork went up the field and bagged a third goal, Brian Hayes setting up Patrick Horgan.
Sub Robbie O’Flynn raised a fourth green flag in the closing stages but sub Jack Clancy scrambled home another Offaly goal and Killian Sampson punished more slack defending at the death.
Cork will need to up their game this weekend and Ryan certainly wasn’t trying to use the time off as an excuse.
‘I suppose you could say it is from a sloppiness point of view,’ he said, ‘but from an attitude point of view, that’s the disappointing thing for us. We’ll park it now, we’ll move on. Obviously, we’ve a huge game against Dublin next week and that sharpens the mind.
‘If we’d won by 24 or 25 points, similar to Tipperary did last year, it’s hard to get your mindset, so we’ll go after the lads next week.
‘The goals at the end, these things will happen when you’re playing against good teams, no matter what kind of level they’ve been coming from.’
Scorers - Cork: Patrick Horgan 1-10 (6f, 2 65); Shane Barrett 1-4; Brian Hayes 1-1; Declan Dalton 0-4 (1f); Darragh Fitzgibbon 0-3; Robbie O’Flynn 1-0; Shane Kingston, Conor Lehane, Niall O’Leary 0-1 each. Offaly: Eoghan Cahill (4f), Brian Duignan (3f) 0-5 each; Killian Sampson 1-3; Dan Burke 0-3 (1f); Oisín Kelly, Jack Clancy 1-0 each; David King, Cillian Kiely, Jason Sampson 0-1 each.
Cork: Patrick Collins; Niall O’Leary, Eoin Downey, Seán O’Donoghue; Tim O’Mahony, Robert Downey, Mark Coleman; Ciarán Joyce, Darragh Fitzgibbon; Declan Dalton, Shane Barrett, Conor Lehane; Patrick Horgan, Alan Connolly, Brian Hayes. Subs: Shane Kingston for Connolly (44), Luke Meade for Barret (55), Pádraig Power for Lehane (63), Jack O’Connor for Hayes (64), Robbie O’Flynn for Dalton (67).
Offaly: Mark Troy; Ben Conneely, Ciarán Burke, Cathal King; Donal Shirley, Cillian Kiely, Jason Sampson; David King, Ross Ravenhill; Killian Sampson, Brian Duignan, Oisín Kelly; Charlie Mitchell, Eoghan Cahill, Dan Bourke. Subs: Eimhín Kelly for Cahill (half-time, injured), J Clancy for Ross Ravenhill (47), Sam Bourke for O Kelly (61), Dara Maher for Kiely (64), Luke Watkins for Dan Bourke (70).
Referee: Seán Stack (Dublin).
