Dublin 1-19 Cork 1-24
All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Final
By Darragh Twomey at Croke Park
Dublin’s fairy-tale season in the All-Ireland SHC came to a bitterly disappointing end at the penultimate stage of the competition after a five point defeat at the hands of Cork in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon (11th August).
A Patrick Horgan goal five minutes from time gave The Rebels the edge that was needed in such a closely fought battle.
The Dubs were reduced to fourteen men in the forty-ninth minute- Ryan O’Dwyer the man who was sent for an early shower after picking up a second yellow card.
O’Dwyer picked up his first yellow card in the second minute of the game for a hard-hitting challenge that set the tempo for the next sixty-eight minutes of play.
Danny Sutcliffe opened the scoring seconds after a spine-tingling rendition of Amhran na bhFiann. Patrick Horgan levelled the game seconds later by slotting over the free that was awarded as a result of O’Dwyer’s tempo-setting tackle.
It was to be one of those games. Tit-for-tat, score for score.
Cork were 0-3 to 0-1 ahead in the fourth minute- Conor Lehane pointing before setting up Luke O’Farrell for a point, which meant all three of Cork’s inside forwards now had a score to their name.
Four minutes later it was a level game again. Paul Ryan converted a free in front of a packed Hill 16, while David O’Callaghan tagged on a point for the boys in blue.
Dublin took the lead for less than a minute when O’Dwyer made a brilliant catch, laid it off to Johnny McCaffrey, and it was he who played the vital pass to Conal Keaney who pointed.
Dublin had a sloppy spell in the defence, which was punished by two Lorcán McLoughlin points in as many minutes.
Ryan converted another placed ball for Dublin, but that point was quickly cancelled out by McLoughlin who was scoring his third point in five minutes, an impressive stat for a midfielder.
Dublin full-back Peter Kelly showed an attacking threat by breaking forward and landing a precise ball on top of David Treacy. However, the Cuala clubman failed to provide the end product required to raise a white flag.
‘If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again’. That they did. The pair linked up again when Kelly won the clearance, and Treacy pointed at the second time of asking.
The sides added two points each in the next three minutes, Sutcliffe and Boland scoring for the Dubs, while Lehane and Horgan kept Cork on level par.
The game went four minutes without a score- the longest spell without a raised flag in the game which was now twenty-three minutes old. The spell ended when Cork’s Séamus Harnedy pointed from a tight angle.
Hawk-eye was called into action ten minutes from the break, and it was the word ‘miss’ that appeared on the big screens, much to the disappointment of Dublin’s Shane Durkin, who had just been introduced in place of Stephen Hiney at wing-back.
Lehane and O’Callaghan swapped scores for Cork and Dublin respectively twenty-seven minutes in, but a Horgan free gave Cork a two point lead two minutes later.
After half an hour of play, Treacy scored the opening goal of the game. Ryan got the ball out near the corner of the pitch and began to run at goal along the end-line. He then laid the ball of to Treacy who was un-marked at the edge of the square, and he kicked the ball into the net.
The Hill erupted and the Dubs were one point ahead.
Horgan replied with a free at the other end a minute later, but from the resulting puck-out, Dublin captain McCaffrey led by example and pointed brilliantly off his left.
Late points from Harnedy, Patrick Cronin and Daniel Kearney meant Cork lead the the break, although Ryan slotted over a free for Dublin to ensure it was only the minimum between the sides. The Heathers provided the half-time entertainment as the scoreboard read Áth Cliath 1-11 Corcaigh 0-15.
As was the case in the first half, Dublin opened the second half scoring with a point courtesy of O’Dwyer.
Cork goalkeeper and potential All-Star Anthony Nash drove over a free in the thirty-ninth minute. However, Durkin cancelled it out with a point at the Canal End after some great work by Sutcliffe.
Sutcliffe then scored a point of his own two minutes later to put The Metropolitans one up.
O’Dwyer should have put Dublin in the driving seat when he was put one-on-one with the Cork goalkeeper, but the Kilmacud Crokes man hit the ball straight at Nash who cleared the ball with ease.
A Ryan free fifteen minutes into the second half was cancelled out a minute later when Horgan landed a placed ball on the train-tracks behind Hill 16.
Keaney and O’Farrell exchanged scores before the game changing sending off of Ryan O’Dwyer.
The next two scores would be vital, and Cork got both of them. Nash sent over a free against the wind before Jamie Coughlan put the Leesiders ahead with his first point of the game.
Horgan slotted over two placed balls in the next six minutes for Cork, while a Ryan free and a Sutcliffe point from play ensured Dublin were still in it with ten minutes to go.
Nash and Ryan swapped scores from placed balls as the clock read 64 minutes and both sets of supporters were getting nervous.
It was the Dublin fans who were more nervous with five minutes to go as the ball dropped on top of Dublin goalkeeper Gary Maguire in the sixty-fifth minute. Maguire attempted to jab lift the ball, but as it floated up in front of his hand, Horgan intercepted it and volleyed the ball into the back of the net. The Cork fans were ecstatic- surely there was no way back for fourteen-men Dublin.
A minute remained when Dublin were awarded a free just beyond the twenty-one yard line. Ryan had to go for goal. So he went for it, and it was saved.
Cork substitute Stephen Moylan added salt to the Dublin wounds with an injury time point.
Cork were into their first All-Ireland final since 2006 with a 1-24 to 1-19 win. Dublin were on their way back to the drawing-board.
It simply wasn’t to be Dublin’s day. There was something lacking. Were they deprived of match-sharpness after the five week break? Were they nervous? For the majority of the players, the roaring crowd of 62,092 was the biggest they had played in front of. Did the occasion get to them? God only knows.
One thing is for certain- it wasn’t hunger or fight that was absent in the Dublin camp.
There was no ritual chanting of ‘Come on Ye Boys in Blue’ as we made our way down the steps of The Hill and out the tunnel after the game. Instead there was an eerie atmosphere; ‘gutted’ was the word on the tongues of Dublin supporters. We will not be visiting the Holy Grail on the second Sunday in September of 2013.
‘Maybe next year’.
Scorers:
Dublin: P Ryan (0-06 f); D Sutcliffe 0-4; D Treacy 1-1; C Keaney, D O’Callaghan 0-2 each; S Durkin, J McCaffrey, J Boland, R O’Dwyer 0-1 each.
Cork: P Horgan (0-5f) 1-7; L McLoughlin, A Nash (0-3 f), C Lehane 0-3 each; S Harnedy, L O’Farrell 0-2 each; D Kearney, J Coughlan, P Cronin, S Moylan 0-1 each.
Dublin: Gary Maguire; Niall Corcoran, Peter Kelly, Paul Schutte; Stephen Hiney, Liam Rushe, Michael Carton; Johnny McCaffrey, Joey Boland; Conal Keaney, Ryan O’Dwyer, Danny Sutcliffe; David O’Callaghan, Paul Ryan, David Treacy.
Subs: Shane Durkin for Hiney (22 mins); Simon Lambert for Carton (49 mins); Mark Schutte for Treacy (51 mins); Eamonn Dillon for O’Callaghan (61 mins); Ruairi Trainor for P Schutte (72 mins).
Cork: Anthony Nash; Stephen McDonnell, Shane O’Neill, Conor O’Sullivan; Tom Kenny, Christopher Joyce, William Egan; Lorcán McLoughlin, Daniel Kearney; Séamus Harnedy, Jamie Coughlan, Patrick Cronin; Luke O’Farrell, Patrick Horgan, Conor Lehane.
Subs: S White for Kenny (45 mins); C Naughton for Coughlan (64 mins); S Moylan for Lehane (68 mins)
All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Final
By Darragh Twomey at Croke Park
Dublin’s fairy-tale season in the All-Ireland SHC came to a bitterly disappointing end at the penultimate stage of the competition after a five point defeat at the hands of Cork in Croke Park on Sunday afternoon (11th August).
A Patrick Horgan goal five minutes from time gave The Rebels the edge that was needed in such a closely fought battle.
The Dubs were reduced to fourteen men in the forty-ninth minute- Ryan O’Dwyer the man who was sent for an early shower after picking up a second yellow card.
O’Dwyer picked up his first yellow card in the second minute of the game for a hard-hitting challenge that set the tempo for the next sixty-eight minutes of play.
Danny Sutcliffe opened the scoring seconds after a spine-tingling rendition of Amhran na bhFiann. Patrick Horgan levelled the game seconds later by slotting over the free that was awarded as a result of O’Dwyer’s tempo-setting tackle.
It was to be one of those games. Tit-for-tat, score for score.
Cork were 0-3 to 0-1 ahead in the fourth minute- Conor Lehane pointing before setting up Luke O’Farrell for a point, which meant all three of Cork’s inside forwards now had a score to their name.
Four minutes later it was a level game again. Paul Ryan converted a free in front of a packed Hill 16, while David O’Callaghan tagged on a point for the boys in blue.
Dublin took the lead for less than a minute when O’Dwyer made a brilliant catch, laid it off to Johnny McCaffrey, and it was he who played the vital pass to Conal Keaney who pointed.
Dublin had a sloppy spell in the defence, which was punished by two Lorcán McLoughlin points in as many minutes.
Ryan converted another placed ball for Dublin, but that point was quickly cancelled out by McLoughlin who was scoring his third point in five minutes, an impressive stat for a midfielder.
Dublin full-back Peter Kelly showed an attacking threat by breaking forward and landing a precise ball on top of David Treacy. However, the Cuala clubman failed to provide the end product required to raise a white flag.
‘If at first you don’t succeed, try and try again’. That they did. The pair linked up again when Kelly won the clearance, and Treacy pointed at the second time of asking.
The sides added two points each in the next three minutes, Sutcliffe and Boland scoring for the Dubs, while Lehane and Horgan kept Cork on level par.
The game went four minutes without a score- the longest spell without a raised flag in the game which was now twenty-three minutes old. The spell ended when Cork’s Séamus Harnedy pointed from a tight angle.
Hawk-eye was called into action ten minutes from the break, and it was the word ‘miss’ that appeared on the big screens, much to the disappointment of Dublin’s Shane Durkin, who had just been introduced in place of Stephen Hiney at wing-back.
Lehane and O’Callaghan swapped scores for Cork and Dublin respectively twenty-seven minutes in, but a Horgan free gave Cork a two point lead two minutes later.
After half an hour of play, Treacy scored the opening goal of the game. Ryan got the ball out near the corner of the pitch and began to run at goal along the end-line. He then laid the ball of to Treacy who was un-marked at the edge of the square, and he kicked the ball into the net.
The Hill erupted and the Dubs were one point ahead.
Horgan replied with a free at the other end a minute later, but from the resulting puck-out, Dublin captain McCaffrey led by example and pointed brilliantly off his left.
Late points from Harnedy, Patrick Cronin and Daniel Kearney meant Cork lead the the break, although Ryan slotted over a free for Dublin to ensure it was only the minimum between the sides. The Heathers provided the half-time entertainment as the scoreboard read Áth Cliath 1-11 Corcaigh 0-15.
As was the case in the first half, Dublin opened the second half scoring with a point courtesy of O’Dwyer.
Cork goalkeeper and potential All-Star Anthony Nash drove over a free in the thirty-ninth minute. However, Durkin cancelled it out with a point at the Canal End after some great work by Sutcliffe.
Sutcliffe then scored a point of his own two minutes later to put The Metropolitans one up.
O’Dwyer should have put Dublin in the driving seat when he was put one-on-one with the Cork goalkeeper, but the Kilmacud Crokes man hit the ball straight at Nash who cleared the ball with ease.
A Ryan free fifteen minutes into the second half was cancelled out a minute later when Horgan landed a placed ball on the train-tracks behind Hill 16.
Keaney and O’Farrell exchanged scores before the game changing sending off of Ryan O’Dwyer.
The next two scores would be vital, and Cork got both of them. Nash sent over a free against the wind before Jamie Coughlan put the Leesiders ahead with his first point of the game.
Horgan slotted over two placed balls in the next six minutes for Cork, while a Ryan free and a Sutcliffe point from play ensured Dublin were still in it with ten minutes to go.
Nash and Ryan swapped scores from placed balls as the clock read 64 minutes and both sets of supporters were getting nervous.
It was the Dublin fans who were more nervous with five minutes to go as the ball dropped on top of Dublin goalkeeper Gary Maguire in the sixty-fifth minute. Maguire attempted to jab lift the ball, but as it floated up in front of his hand, Horgan intercepted it and volleyed the ball into the back of the net. The Cork fans were ecstatic- surely there was no way back for fourteen-men Dublin.
A minute remained when Dublin were awarded a free just beyond the twenty-one yard line. Ryan had to go for goal. So he went for it, and it was saved.
Cork substitute Stephen Moylan added salt to the Dublin wounds with an injury time point.
Cork were into their first All-Ireland final since 2006 with a 1-24 to 1-19 win. Dublin were on their way back to the drawing-board.
It simply wasn’t to be Dublin’s day. There was something lacking. Were they deprived of match-sharpness after the five week break? Were they nervous? For the majority of the players, the roaring crowd of 62,092 was the biggest they had played in front of. Did the occasion get to them? God only knows.
One thing is for certain- it wasn’t hunger or fight that was absent in the Dublin camp.
There was no ritual chanting of ‘Come on Ye Boys in Blue’ as we made our way down the steps of The Hill and out the tunnel after the game. Instead there was an eerie atmosphere; ‘gutted’ was the word on the tongues of Dublin supporters. We will not be visiting the Holy Grail on the second Sunday in September of 2013.
‘Maybe next year’.
Scorers:
Dublin: P Ryan (0-06 f); D Sutcliffe 0-4; D Treacy 1-1; C Keaney, D O’Callaghan 0-2 each; S Durkin, J McCaffrey, J Boland, R O’Dwyer 0-1 each.
Cork: P Horgan (0-5f) 1-7; L McLoughlin, A Nash (0-3 f), C Lehane 0-3 each; S Harnedy, L O’Farrell 0-2 each; D Kearney, J Coughlan, P Cronin, S Moylan 0-1 each.
Dublin: Gary Maguire; Niall Corcoran, Peter Kelly, Paul Schutte; Stephen Hiney, Liam Rushe, Michael Carton; Johnny McCaffrey, Joey Boland; Conal Keaney, Ryan O’Dwyer, Danny Sutcliffe; David O’Callaghan, Paul Ryan, David Treacy.
Subs: Shane Durkin for Hiney (22 mins); Simon Lambert for Carton (49 mins); Mark Schutte for Treacy (51 mins); Eamonn Dillon for O’Callaghan (61 mins); Ruairi Trainor for P Schutte (72 mins).
Cork: Anthony Nash; Stephen McDonnell, Shane O’Neill, Conor O’Sullivan; Tom Kenny, Christopher Joyce, William Egan; Lorcán McLoughlin, Daniel Kearney; Séamus Harnedy, Jamie Coughlan, Patrick Cronin; Luke O’Farrell, Patrick Horgan, Conor Lehane.
Subs: S White for Kenny (45 mins); C Naughton for Coughlan (64 mins); S Moylan for Lehane (68 mins).