Goal hungry Cork blitzed Limerick 6-18 to 0-12 at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and won by 24 points in Division 2 of the Allianz Football League on Sunday afternoon.
If John Cleary wanted a statement of a response to last Sunday's defeat to Dublin, this was it as his team ended up in a 2-03 to 0-02 lead with just under 15 minutes played. The Rebels were aggressive with Ian Maguire and Colm O’Callaghan both raising green flags during the first quarter by the banks of the Lee.
Cork did hit four wides, and they had to cope with points from Brian Donovan and Tony McCarthy. This proved to be a false dawn as the 1-01 to 0-02 score line quickly grew more and more lopsided as Maguire and Steven Sherlock added more points to Cork’s lead.
There was no relent and no let-off from the home side as they continued to push up and soon almost every member of their team was raising a white flag. The Rebels had six different scorers in the opening 35 minutes and two of their goals came from midfield duo Maguire and O’Callaghan.
It was relentless, so much so that they didn’t score a single free in the first half. That’s because they weren’t fouled as Limerick had to push up early on and every turnover Cork won saw them counter with numbers and run at the Blackrock end in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
There was a sense of fluidly to how this was being done as the midfield interchanged with the forwards, and at one point Maguire was operating as a centre forward.
Limerick were left with just six points scored at half-time, and one of those was put over by Cork’s Daniel O’Mahony after he tried to divert a goal bound shot out for a 45.
The Rebels were in front 4-09 to 0-06 at the break and another goal was added by Cian Corbett once the game restarted and this was possibly the pick of the bunch. He took down a long ball forward and drilled it in from the tightest of angles.
This followed Donovan rattling the crossbar from close range for Limerick, and once Cork took a 19 point lead, any fight left was all but extinguished.
In the dying minutes, Sherlock was denied a fantastic finish to his afternoon when a run down the right side ended with him smacking the ball off the crossbar.
The masses quickly forgot this as substitute Conor Corbett got into a similar position moments later and kicked in Cork’s sixth goal.
The Rebels ended with nine different scorers as they continue to work up the table in Division 2 of the Allianz National Football League.
Cork: Micheál Aodh Martin; Maurice Shanley, Daniel O'Mahony, Tommy Walsh, Luke Fahey, Rory Maguire, Matty Taylor (0-01), Colm O’Callaghan (1-01), Ian Maguire (1-01), Eoghan McSweeney (0-01), Sean Powter (1-01), Brian O’Driscoll, Brian Hurley (1-01), Chris Og Jones (0-06), Steven Sherlock (0-05 2f).
Subs: Ruairi Deane for Brian O’Driscoll (5), Conor Corbett (2-01) for Brian Hurley (36), Killian O’Hanlon for Ian Maguire (41), Cian Kiely for Luke Fahey (47), Kevin O’Donovan for Maurice Shanley (60), Mark Cronin for Sean Powter (61).
Limerick: Donal O’Sullivan; David Connolly, Sean O’Dea, Brian Fanning, Iain Corbett (0-01), Cillian Fahey (0-03), Tony McCarthy (0-01), Colm McSweeney (0-01), Cathal Downes, Cian Sheehan (0-01), James Naughton (0-01,1f), Paul Maher, Gordon Brown, Brian Donovan (0-01), Hugh Bourke (0-01).
Subs: Michael O’Donovan (0-1) for Sean O’Dea (37), Peter Nash for Paul Maher (37), Killian Ryan for Gordon Browne (39), Adrain Enright for Brian Donovan (49), Jim Liston for Hugh Bourke (60).
Referee: Brendan Griffin (Kerry)
