Senior hurlers hit Rebels for four

Sun, 6th March 2016

DUBLIN 4-21 CORK 2-17

Dublin's senior hurlers built on the momentum of their victory over Galway when outclassing Cork in Saturday's NHL Division 1A clash at Croke Park.

Ger Cunningham's men put in arguably their best Croke Park display during his reign to run out ten-point victors and it should have been more as they conceded two late goals with the outcome well beyond debate.

A stunning first half period when Dublin hit 3-6 was the foundation for their victory with the goals coming from Eamonn Dillon, David Treacy and Seán McGrath between the 20th and 24th minutes.

The in-form David Treacy finished as top-scorer with 1-7 with while Eamonn Dillon tallied 2-3 as his pace continues to set off alarm bells in the opposition defence.

Cork settled well and led 0-4 to -2 early on but the accuracy of David Treacy from deadball soon had Dublin 0-6 to 0-4 to the good by the 15th minute.

Then the Dubs hit that purple patch to blitz Cork when scoring 3-6 - Eamonn Dillon accelerated away from Stephen McDonnell for their first goal after 20 minutes before turning provider for David Treacy to add a second same three minutes later.

By the interval Dublin were 12 points clear after Seán McGrath crashed home the third goal.

Nh Fionnbarra man Dillon grabbed his second goal past the midpoint of the second half as Dublin moved 4-14 to 0-11 clear.

There was slight consolation for Cork as Seamus Harnedy fired two injury-time goals to put some gloss on the scoreline.

SCORERS – Dublin: D Treacy 1-7 (0-5f), E Dillon 2-3, S McGrath 1-0, S Barrett, N McMorrow, M Schutte 0-2 each, L Rushe, J McCaffrey, D Plunkett, D O’Callaghan, S Treacy 0-1 each. Cork: P Horgan 0-7 (0-6f, 0-1 ‘65’), S Harnedy 2-0, C Lehane 0-4, L O’Farrell, P Haughney (0-1f) 0-2 each, B Cooper, B Lawton 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: C Dooley; E O’Donnell, C O’Callaghan, O Gough; S Barrett, L Rushe, J McCaffrey; D O’Connell, D Plunkett; S McGrath, N McMorrow, D Treacy; D O’Callaghan, M Schutte, E Dillon. Subs: C Cronin for McGrath (ht), J Boland for McCaffrey (58), S Treacy for D O’Callaghan (64), F McGibb for D Treacy (64), J Madden for C O’Callaghan (69)

CORK: A Nash; S McDonnell, K Burke, S McDonnell; D Cahalane, M Ellis, C Murphy; D Kearney, B Lawton; B Cooper, S Harnedy, C Lehane; L O’Farrell, P Cronin, P Horgan. Subs: L McLoughlin for C Murphy (27), P Haughney for Kearney (32), S Murphy for McDonnell (h-t), P O’Sullivan for Cronin (45), W Leahy for Horgan (62)

REF: A Kelly (Galway).