Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Championship senior semi-final: Cork 4-17 Dublin 0-9
SORCHA McCartan laid down a marker midway through the second half of the first senior semi-final at UMPC Nowlan Park on Saturday.
The former Down star was introduced as a substitute for full-forward Katrina Mackey and crashed home a third Cork goal within 90 seconds.
However, while it reminded her management team that she still knows where the net is, the game was well and truly over at that stage and the goal made it 3-11 to 0-4 with three other substitutes, Clodagh Finn, Orlaith Mullins and Ciara O’Sullivan contributing a further four points in the final quarter.
Considering that Cork had beaten Dublin in the group stages by 4-22 to 0-4, this was always going to be a difficult game for the Metropolitans who had shocked Kilkenny in the quarter-finals. It didn’t help that Aisling Maher blasted a penalty over the bar in the first minute.
Maher added a second point from a free two minutes later, but those were the only two points Dublin scored in the opening 30 minutes. The rest of the half was spent fire-fighting against a potent Cork attack.
Orlaith Cahalane’s goal in the 17th minute made it 1-5 to 0-2 and Saoirse McCarthy, Laura Hayes and free-taker Amy O’Connor stretched that gap to 1-10 to 0-2 by half-time.
Hayes and Grace O’Shea swopped points at the start of the second half before McCarthy buried a 39th minute goal. A few minutes later Cork sent in two subs and McCartan fired in a quick goal.
More subs hit the target with a few in reply from Dublin before Cahalane’s second goal in injury time completed an emphatic win for the Lee-siders in search of their 30th title.
Cork scorers: O Cahalane (2-2, 0-2 frees), S McCarthy (1-2), S McCartan (1-0), A O’Connor (0-4, 0-3 frees), L Hayes (0-2, 0-1 free), C Finn (0-2), A Healy (0-1), C Healy (0-1), H Looney (0-1), O Mullins (0-1), C O’Sullivan (0-1)
Dublin: A Maher (0-5, 0-4 frees, 0-1 pen), A Gannon (0-1), E Flanagan (0-1), G O’Shea (0-1), N Gannon (0-1)