Senior hurlers make Championship exit

ALL-IRELAND SHC QUALIFIER ROUND 1

CORK 1-25 DUBLIN 0-22

Dublin hurlers exit this year's winter championship after going under by six-points to Cork in Semple Stadium, Thurles on Saturday afternoon.

Mattie Kenny's men battled to the finish but they would have needed a late goal to ignite any chance of late dramatics.

The Rebel attack seemed to find time and space easier than the Dublin forward unit who were well contained and the only goal of the game came in the ninth minute - it was a crucial score.

Full-forward Declan Dalton was the scorer as the second attempt after keeper Alan Nolan and defender Daire Gray did well to stifle his first original effort.

Dublin though reacted well to that score with Donal Burke (free), Cian Boland and Donal Burke - both stylish scores from play - closed the gap to 1-6 to 0-6 by the first half water break.

The Dubs had settled well with two excellent long-range strikes from Danny Sutcliffe but as the half wore on the Cork attack began to prise openings in the Dublin defence with a mix of pace and precise passing.

A fine Ronan Hayes point in the 26th minute which was followed by a Donal Burke free, following a foul on Eoghan O'Donnell, left Dublin a goal in arrears (1-10 to 0-10).

However, the Rebels concluded the half on top with points from Shane Kingston, Robbie O'Flynn and Patrick Horgan, from his own '65', to lead by six at the half-time interval, 1-13 to 0-10.

On the restart Danny Sutcliffe briefly forced an opening in the Cork defence but his close-range batted effort for goal was saved by keeper Anthony Nash, it was a rare sighting on goal for the Dubs.

By the second half water break the accuracy of Robbie O'Flynn and Séamus Harnedy had pushed Cork out to a 1-19 to 0-15 lead and Dublin were in need of something special.

The performed heroics a week earlier in the last quarter against Kilkenny but there was to be no repeat as Cork kept Dublin at arm's length.

Dublin keeper Alan Nolan was also called upon to make a great double save to deny Jack O'Connor and Séamus Harnedy inside the final five minutes.

The Dubs kept trying to the finish with Donal Burke and Chris Crummey, blazing over with a goal effort, tagged on points but there was no way back as Cork advanced to Round 2.

Afterwards Dublin manager Mattie Kenny said: “The lads (were) slightly heavy-legged. Three championship matches in two weeks, so obviously the little knocks and bruises are starting to add up.

“We were the only team out this weekend who has played three weekends in a row. That’s not an excuse but it was probably a contributory factor.

“Of course we were a little concerned before but we couldn’t express that concern. You can’t put doubts in the players’ minds.

“But when you win your first one and then you’re out and you’re out again. Some teams that lost their first game got a two-week break and might have been in a better position going into tonight’s game than we were. That’s the luck of the draw and as I say we’re not complaining.

“Obviously they have a lot of pace in their side. When we pushed up on them, they played in behind us a little bit. And when we dropped back, they played in front of us. They used the ball very, very well. That five or six point lead is what they held for a long time.

“We felt half way through the second half we needed a goal. We had a couple of opportunities, but we didn’t take any of them. If we got one of them, maybe that would have given us some momentum to claw them back fully. Our execution and our finishing wasn’t at the top level.

“But on the night, you have to say Cork was the best team and deserved their victory.

"We knew there’d be a different Cork team here tonight. I know they were very disappointed with their performance the last day, they got a bit of criticism the last day so they were going to come out to prove a point tonight.

“They started very, very quickly. We knew that they’re a very proud county and they were going to come with a big, big push here. We knew that so were under no illusions there but it was up to us to match them and unfortunately we didn’t do that.”

SCORERS – Cork: P Horgan 0-8 (0-5f, 0-1 '65'), S Harnedy, R O’Flynn 0-5 each, S Kingston 0-4, D Dalton 1-1, P Meade, J O’Connor 0-1 each. Dublin: D Burke 0-11 (0-9f), D Sutcliffe, C Crummey 0-3 each, C Boland, 0-2, C Burke, R Hayes, D Keogh 0-1 each.

CORK: A Nash; S O Donoghue, R Downey, C Spillane; D Cahalane, M Coleman, T O’Mahony; B Cooper, L Meade; R O’Flynn, P Horgan, S Harnedy; J O’Connor, D Dalton, S Kingston. Subs: S McDonnell for O’Donoghue (30), C Lehane for Dalton (53), A Walsh for Harnedy (66), N O’Leary for Downey (68).

DUBLIN: A Nolan; J Madden, C O’Callaghan, P Smyth; C Burke, E O’Donnell, J Malone; D Gray, R McBride; C Boland, D Burke, D Sutcliffe; R Hayes, C Crummey, E Dillon. Subs: D Keogh for Dillon (47), S Moran for Malone (51), L Rushe for Hayes (51), M Schutte for Boland (53), C Keaney for McBride (67), S Barrett for O’Connor (74).

REF: J Keenan (Wicklow).