Needing to win to stay on course for top-flight hurling next year, Cork were in absolutely no mood for messing when they made the journey to Tullamore to take on an improving Offaly on Sunday.
They made several changes from the side that had a thrilling win over Waterford in their previous game and with the replacements hungry for action, determined to make their mark, they sauntered to a runaway win.
It was just a little bit different than their previous journey to Offaly two years ago when they blew the home side out of the water and had the points in the bag after a few minutes. They had to work a bit harder here early on but the disparity in class was obvious and Offaly couldn't cope when Cork moved at full pace and clicked into top gear.
With a game to come against Wexford, Cork will now be confident of getting into the top three and a place in Division 1A of the restructured league next year. They were impressive here, playing some quality hurling and taking some great scores.
Offaly had competed very well before this, drawing with Wexford in a game they should have won and giving Kilkenny and Waterford some food for thought. It didn’t happen for them here, despite a battling and honest performance and it was clear that they were on a damage limitation exercise from before half-time.
Offaly had first use of the wind and held their own early on. They were level at 0-02 each after seven minutes but that was as good as it got for them. Cork had five points on the board before impressive defender Sam Bourke got Offaly’s third point in the 16th minute.
Cork upped the tempo considerably in the second quarter and Offaly couldn’t live with them. They had the home side in bother when they ran in straight lines at their defence and an Alan Connolly goal gave them a 1-07 to 0-03 lead in the 19th minute.
Offaly hung on grimly and were 1-11 to 0-07 behind after 31 minutes but Cork again hit a higher gear coming up to half-time.
Declan Dalton got a point, and a second goal from Alan Connolly after Offaly didn’t clear their lines helped them to a 2-12 to 0-08 half-time lead. It was all over at that stage and Cork could have been further ahead, even though Offaly had nine poor first-half wides – Mark Troy made a great save to deny Connolly in the 32nd minute while an earlier Cork free was very close to being in the penalty area.
When the fixtures for the league came out, this game stood out as one where Offaly could sustain a bad beating. And so it proved here as Cork went for the jugular in the second half, continuing to pile forward relentlessly. They didn’t have a wide in the second half until Darragh Fitzgibbon sent wide in the 64th minute – they had just two wides in the second half in a remarkably clinical display of shooting.
Offaly lived off scraps. They were out scored by 3-16 to 0-08 in the second half, all of their scores came from David Nally, who took over the free-taking duties when Eoghan Cahill went off at half-time, and only one of these were from play. Inside the closing quarter, Offaly were a demoralised outfit and the scale of the beating shows how much work is ahead of them, despite their encouraging earlier displays.
Cork were relentless in the second half and Offaly received no respite as they emptied their bench with three subs contributing 2-06 between them. Cork were 2-20 to 0-11 ahead when the deadly Connolly completed his hat-trick in the 52nd minute.
Late on, Offaly’s heads dropped as the points continued to flow over from all over the place and Cork were able to run in two late goals – impressive subs Brian Hayes and Darragh Fitzgibbon applied quality finishes after getting inside the Offaly cover in the 67th and 69th minutes.
CORK: Patrick Collins; Niall O’Leary, Damien Cahalane, Eoin Downey; Ger Mellerick, Tim O’Mahony, Robert Downey (0-3); Brian Roche (0-2), Luke Meade (0-2); Declan Dalton (0-7, 4f and 2 '65’s), Conor Lehane (0-2), Seamus Harnedy (0-1); Jack O’Connor (0-2), Alan Connolly (3-1), Shane Barrett (0-2). Subs – Robbie Cotter for O’Connor (HT), Darragh Fitzgibbon (1-1) for Harnedy (45m), Shane Kingston (0-4, 2f) for Dalton (54m), Brian Hayes (1-1) for Connolly (57m), Cormac O’Brien for Robert Downey (67m),
OFFALY: Mark Troy; Cathal King, Ben Conneely, Padraig Cantwell; David King, Jason Sampson, Sam Bourke (0-1); Eimhin Kelly, David Nally (0-8, 6f and 1 ‘65’); Dan Ravenhill (0-1), Killian Sampson, Dan Bourke (0-1); Eoghan Cahill (0-5, 4f), Oisin Kelly, Adam Screeney. Subs – Charlie Mitchell for Ravenhill (13m), Jack Clancy for Cahill (HT), Luke Watkins for Screeney (43m), Donal Shirley for Cantwell (50m), Morgan Watkins for Eimhin Kelly (68m).
Referee: Colum Cunning (Antrim).
