Royals a big hurdle for Hands
Tyrone 0-23 Cork 1-6 All-ireland MFC semi-final
TYRONE boss Ger Donnelly always suspected his side would have to beat Meath to win the All-ireland.
The Ulster champions cruised past Cork in Tullamore to set up a final date with the Royals this Saturday at Croke Park.
Eoin Mcelholm and Ronan Cassidy hit 0-5 each while subs Conor Owens and Jack Martin contributed 0-7 between them.
It was a strong display from Tyrone who will be slight favourites in their first final since 2013.
They’ll also have the crowd on their side as the tie will throw in at 1pm, before the Tyrone seniors play Kerry in their rescheduled semi-final.
But Red Hands manager Donnelly (inset) said: “From the start of this year, if you’d asked me who is the team that you’d look at, Meath would be the one.
“We played Dublin in a challenge match and the Dublin manager was saying to me that Meath would be very tough to beat.
“Dublin beat us in that challenge and you saw what Meath did to Dublin in the Leinster final.”
Tyrone should have won by more because Cork keeper Daniel Walsh pulled off five great saves, one from a 21st minute penalty.
Tyrone still led 0-10 to 0-3 at half-time and closed out the big win with eight points in a row at one stage in the second half.
It was still a good year for Cork who beat eight-in-a-row Munster champions Kerry though manager Michael O’brien cut a downbeat figure.
O’brien said: “We didn’t mind the ball well enough, every time we won it we just gave it back to them.”
Tyrone scorers: R Cassidy (3f) & E Mcelholm 0-5 each, C Owens 0-4 (3f), J Martin 0-3, H Cunningham (2f) & R Strain 0-2 each, C Devlin & R Mchugh 0-1 each.
Cork: D Crowley 1-1, H O’connor 0-4 (3f), A Kelleher 0-1.