Rampant Rebels’ fate still hanging in the balance

ANOTHER Munster hurling championship weekend and another Cork pitch invasion. For Tipperary fans, this must have felt like the last indignity. As if seeing their team routed to the tune of an 18-point defeat to trample over their last lingering provincial ambitions, here were the Cork hordes trampling all over Semple Stadium.

Just to rub the point home, a few bold visiting fans set off red flares on the pitch in contravention of security advice. And yet…

The mood didn’t really serve to remind Cork that they could yet exit the Championship.

In a Munster campaign that has already provided no end of drama and plot twists, there is still a chance that, after two thrilling, high-scoring displays in which they put All-Ireland champions Limerick to the sword and hammered old rivals Tipperary, they will be left waiting nervously next Sunday for the results of the final-round game between Waterford and Limerick.

If the underdogs manage to earn a draw away to the five-in-arow Munster champions, that will put them on four points, the same as Cork.

And they have Cork on the head-to-head. That’s of course if Clare get a result against Tipperary, and don’t end up on four points too – if three teams end up on the same points, then score difference kicks in to sort out the qualification places.

In other words, every team is still in with a shout – bar Tipperary.

Anyway, yesterday was about enjoying the moment for Cork. Enjoying Alan Connolly’s third hat-trick of the season, showing that he can do it in Championship after doing it against Offaly and Wexford in the league.

His rasping finish under huge pressure just before half-time was followed up with a second five minutes after the restart when he pick-pocketed Cathal Barrett and went galloping through into space.

The third in the 47th minute sent Cork powering into a 3-17 to 1-16 lead and was the signal for the floodgates to open.

That score involved an intricate series of one-twos with substitute Luke Meade, who freed Connolly to go running into space and laced an emphatic finish to the net.

It summed up Cork’s electric running game and an afternoon when they were on it. Between the rampaging presence of Brian

Hayes, the craft of Patrick Horgan, who also billowed the net and had a goal disallowed for a debatable square ball, there is a sense of unlimited potential.

Shane Barrett was again a jet-heeled presence at centre-forward and, after those few early wobbles, the full-back line settled down, with Niall O’Leary playing from the front and flashing over a score of his own.

Darragh Fitzgibbon again was the pre-eminent midfielder and, with Ciaran Joyce to come back into the mix, this Cork team will test any rival.

That’s if they squeeze into one of those three Munster spots that guarantee a place in the AllIreland series to come.

The last time there was 18 points between these sides?

You have to go back to the 1965 Munster final when Tipperary hammered Cork 4-11 to just five points.

This similar margin was hard to envisage when Liam Cahill’s side had the ball in the net after 16 seconds.

Noel McGrath showed why he is on any Team of the Decade, delivering a sublime floated pass with his first proper touch, straight into the hands of the onrushing Conor Bowe.

When his goal attempt was batted out by goalkeeper Patrick Collins, there was Mark Kehoe to sweep it into the net.

That set the tone for a breathless game. Fitzgibbon pointed almost instantly, and very quickly Brian Hayes was in on goal, drawing a superb onehanded save from Hogan before Connolly sent the rebound wide.

Cork have this rapid-fire ability to rattle off a round of points in bursts and two from Horgan – one a lovely score from the New Stand sideline – quickly clawed back any goal.

The problem for Cork is that they again looked vulnerable at the back, Seán O’Donoghue booked early on for a trip on Kehoe when a goal chance was on.

Cork had already hit 12 points by the 20-minute mark, Declan

Bang in form: Alan Connolly after scoring Cork’s first goal

Dalton getting a sweet score by taking down a Tipperary puckout one-handed and firing over.

The pace of the Cork attack was frightening at times. Darragh Fitzgibbon and Shane

Barrett were next to unstoppable, though the former was helped at times by a liberal interpretation of the steps rule by referee Thomas Walshe before he eventually blew Fitzgibbon late in the first half.

Fitzgibbon had three points to his name by that stage, continuing his Man of the Match form from the Limerick game with a string of rampaging runs.

The difference between the sides was Connolly’s improvised finish to the top corner just before half-time.

As he cut inside from the right, he was trying to evade two different challenges, and he dipped the shoulder and cut a shot to the net to prompt a huge roar around Semple Stadium.

That third-quarter goal blitz was all about the pace of Cork’s play and the quality of Connolly’s finishing.

When Connolly intercepted Cathal Barrett’s pass, the Tipperary defender looked hobbled and signalled to the bench to replace him as Hogan was picking the ball out of the net.

With Cork rampant, substitute Shane Kingston scored four of the quickest points off the bench that you’ll ever see, before another sub Conor Lehane got in on the scoring.

Horgan’s goal came on the hour mark as Cork showed no mercy, a string of John McGrath frees doing little to take the one-sided look off the scoreline.

Now Cork just need the hurling gods on their side next Sunday to stay alive. CORK: P Collins; N O’Leary, E Downey, S O’Donoghue (G Mellerick 52); T O’Mahony, R Downey, M Coleman; E Twomey (L Meade 32), D Fitzgibbon (T O’Connell 64); D Dalton (S Kingston 45), S Barrett (J O’Connor 62), S Harnedy (C Lehane 60); P Horgan, A Connolly (S Twomey 67), B Hayes. Scorers: A Connolly 3-2, P Horgan 1-9 (5fs), S Kingston 0-4, D Fitzgibbon, S Harnedy 0-3 each, S Barrett, R Downey 0-2 each, D Dalton, N O’Leary, B Hayes, C Lehane, L Meade 0-1 each. Yellow card: S O’Donoghue 4. Wides: 7 (4). TIPPERARY: B Hogan; C Barrett (D McCormack 41), M Breen, C Morgan; ~B O’Mara, R Maher (J Ryan 32-), C Bowe; A Tynan, E Connolly (C Stakelum h-t); G O’Connor (S Hayes 56), J Forde (J McGrath 44), N McGrath; J Morris, M Kehoe, D Stakelum (P Maher 49). Scorers: J Forde 0-5 (3fs), M Kehoe 1-0, D Stakelum, J McGrath 0-3 (3fs) each, J Morris, N McGrath, G O’Connor 0-2 each, A Tynan, R Maher (f), C Bowe, S Hayes 0-1 each. Yellow card: R Maher 9. Wides: 4 (6). Referee: T Walsh (Waterford). Attendance: 43,972.