Offaly prove theory of improbability

Offaly 0-19

Johnny Dooley 0-6, five frees; Pilkington 0-4; Joe Dooley, Hanniffy 0-3 each; Murphy, Oakley, Ryan 0-1 each.

Cork 0-15

Deane 0-10, six frees; P Ryan, Barrett, McGrath, Browne, O'Connor 0-1 each.

Referee: W Barrett (Tipperary)

Booked: Offaly - Hanniffy (43 mins), Cork - O'Sullivan (29 mins).

Sent off: None.

Sifting through the debris of the shattered predictions and the ruins of Cork's All-Ireland title, you could uncover just one intact principle. Under the new hurling championship structures, it's hard to find two All-Ireland semi-finalists whose obvious relationship will survive one playing well and the other playing badly.

Yesterday's Guinness All-Ireland semi-final provided sensational corroboration. Offaly hurled superbly and with calm economy whereas Cork blew their kingdom in the last quarter, just as surely as they had built it 12 months ago. Sixteen wides to five tells its own story.

When the teams met in last year's semi-final, Offaly led by two points with eight minutes to play. So it was yesterday. But instead of keeping their nerve and playing to their most tangible strength - the ability to snap points from all over the attack - Cork panicked, bunched around each other, took off on hare-brained sorties down cul de sacs in search of goal and made the worst of what chances were created.

Offaly's defence had by this stage emerged from the tentative and scared state which characterised the start of their afternoon and were playing at near enough full throttle to stifle these raids and their morale waxed as Cork's perceptibly declined.

In the rush to chastise Cork, it is easy to forget that, although champions, they were up against an older side with far more All-Ireland medals and experience of big days at Croke Park. Maybe like the marathon runners who perform best on their first attempt, Cork had lost the carefree exuberance which so distinguished their triumphs last year. Yesterday the fearlessness was gone and no better team to exploit the hesitancy than Offaly, pioneers in the field of improbability theory.

Somewhere in this gripping match the relationship between the teams altered. Cork were no longer the high-scoring champions, cruising within themselves. Having skimmed to an half-time lead of two points, they appeared to have another gear available when required. As the second half wore on, it turned out to be a lower one.

Little battles were won and lost all over the field, but whereas Cork didn't manage to turn around any one of them, Offaly beavered away and refused to buckle in the face of adversity. For Cork, only Diarmuid O'Sullivan at full back dominated his position in the usual fashion for the entire 70 minutes. Nowhere was this disparity more evident than in the dealings between Joe Deane and Kevin Kinahan. Deane started the match in irresistible form and that is meant literally.

Four points in the first 10 minutes, five by 15 and six by 20, half of them from play, indicated the scale of the disaster facing Offaly and Kinahan in particular. Kinahan has been in these clammy confines before but has always retained an imperturbable quality. That could well be encouraged by the absence of any obvious replacement, but there was no real surprise when Pat Fleury and his selectors made no moves to switch.

Deane reached the interval with eight points and one wide. In play he was getting out to good-quality ball, doing his elusive thing and slinging over points; from dead balls he was unerring. Who could have marked him?

Then, in the second half as the pressure came on, Cork lost the blueprint. It was weirdly familiar. Last year, having established what looked like a winning platform, Cork froze for about 20 minutes and allowed Offaly back into the match before closing out in the final 10 minutes. Yesterday they did much the same but never recovered.

One of the symptoms was an array of ill-judged ball dropping from the sky on top of the square. Any Offaly hurling doctor would have prescribed just that for Kinahan's predicament. It put the diminutive Deane at a disadvantage and, brick by brick, reconstructed the Offaly full back's composure.

Feeding on this manna made him only hungrier and by the end Kinahan had become once more the colossal presence he has often been on Offaly's big days. Fleury said afterwards his full back had great qualities not alone as a hurler but as a man, and his response to the abyss yesterday was evidence of that.

If that recovery was one of the match's most significant aspects, another was Brian Corcoran's nightmare visions at centre back. The unlikely figure of Gary Hanniffy was centrally involved as he beat the Hurler of the Year in aerial combat as well as in terms of sharpness and ended the day with three points.

Corcoran never managed to overcome this unexpected threat, moved to the wing, and finished up in the corner being eluded by a less-than-mobile Michael Duignan, complete with a doubtful hamstring and heavy strapping. All round the field Offaly eroded Cork's initial advantages. At centrefield Ger Oakley hurled his best championship match for the county. On the wing Johnny Pilkington continued in his new role as a scoring machine with four points from play and Joe Dooley defied Fergal Ryan and Time with equal confidence. Whatever about the combative Ryan, the man with the hourglass and scythe must wish that someone would call him to the bench after 18 years trying to get the better of his man.

In the unfamiliar - certainly at this level - setting of centre back, Joe Errity was solid and prevented any damaging forays down the middle, even if Fergal McCormack caused damage in the early stages by winning a number of frees.

As a unit, Offaly's half-backs, with Brian Whelahan and Kevin Martin restored to the wings, prevented any winning platform being built on their territory. And on the inside Simon Whelahan emulated last year's storming display with a dazzling second half during which he appeared capable of holding up Cork's attack on his own.

Niall Claffey suffered in the company of Sean McGrath's mercurial skills, but for all the wizardry, Cork's corner forward was unable to take the scores which had he had managed so crucially last year. On a number of occasions he slipped his man in situations as promising as trying to elude two bouncers in a phone box, but critically the finish wasn't there on the day.

By half-time Cork's wides total outstripped their opponents by 10 to two. They led by two points and knew they were in a fight. As self-belief drained away in the second half, only three points were added to the half-time total of 0-12.

Offaly hurled without fuss and took their scores with an assassin's calm. Once Deane had stretched Cork's lead five minutes into the second half, Offaly out-scored the champions by nine points to one until McGrath managed a tap-over in injury-time.

"We couldn't have prepared better," said Cork manager Jimmy Barry-Murphy. Except, of course, by sharpening their hurls and bringing cloves and garlic.