Cork Football final/Carbery 1-11 Bishopstown 0-7: Carbery collected their fourth Cork senior championship title, and their first since 1971, with a comfortable victory over Bishopstown in a disappointing encounter before a crowd of 7,349 at Páirc Uí Chaoimh yesterday.
The south-west divisional side, whose scores all came from play, had the game wrapped up long before the end and were able to give several of their substitutes a taste of the action, underlining their undoubted superiority.
Carbery played with the strong wind in the first half and completely dominated proceedings. Captain Micheál O'Sullivan and Kevin McMahon claimed the midfield exchanges, and their fast, enterprising play repeatedly opened up the struggling Bishopstown defence.
O'Sullivan got a point in the opening minute, and it took a fine save by goalkeeper Michael Galvin to deny Maurice Moore a goal three minutes later. Full forward Pat Hegarty proved an ideal target man, and his sixth-minute point, courtesy of McMahon's creativity, nudged the divisional side two points clear.
Bishopstown, playing in their second final in three years, couldn't put their passing game together, and a miss from a close-range free by James Ferriter only compounded their difficulties.
More hesitant play in defence gifted Moore a point after 10 minutes, and Hegarty's second score seven minutes later stretched Carbery's advantage to 0-4 to 0-0.
Bishopstown finally got off the mark with a James O'Shea point from a well-placed Brian Healy ball after 20 minutes, but their joy didn't last long as Carbery pounced for a goal within a minute.
O'Sullivan's long, probing kick from the right broke kindly for Alan O'Connor and he made no mistake, crashing home an unstoppable shot high into the net from six metres.
That made it 1-4 to 0-1 and, although O'Shea reduced the deficit with a hard-earned point after 25 minutes, Hegarty's fisted effort a minute before the break helped Carbery to a 1-5 to 0-2 lead.
Within 10 seconds of the resumption Seán Levis surged through from centre-back to increase the advantage, and two minutes later the Hegarty-McMahon combination worked again as the full-forward kicked his third point.
Bishopstown enjoyed their best spell soon after, scoring 0-4 without reply, three Ferriter frees and a point from play by substitute Shane Conlisk, to close the gap to four points, 1-7 to 0-6, after 42 minutes.
Carbery quelled any chance of a major revival by scoring twice in 30 seconds from John Hayes and Frankie Arundel. Bishopstown became desperate in their search for that elusive goal as O'Shea and Brian Cuthbert shot wide from acute angles.
There were just three scores in the final quarter, Hayes and Levis obliging for Carbery with Ferriter adding another free for Bishopstown before the final whistle ended their agony.
CARBERY: P Prendergast; E Barrett, E Sexton, E Murphy; B O'Brien, S Levis (0-2), M Fehily; M O'Sullivan (0-1), K McMahon; F Arundel (0-1), J Hayes (0-2), A O'Connor (1-0); D Hayes (0-1), P Hegarty (0-3), M Moore (0-1). Subs: M Cronin for O'Connor (41 mins), B Harte for Moore (57 mins), A O'Leary for Hegarty (57 mins), K Walsh for Fehily (58 mins), M Milner for D Hayes (59 mins).
BISHOPSTOWN: M Galvin; M Kilgallon, N O'Donovan, JA O'Sullivan; S Murphy, M Hayes, B Healy; A O'Connor, R Honohan; B Cuthbert, A Buckley, J Murphy; J Ferriter (0-4, frees), J Honohan, J O'Shea (0-2). Subs: M Cogan for Buckley (28 mins), S Conlish (0-1) for J Murphy (28 mins), J O'Sullivan for J Honohan (47 mins), T Hayes for JA O'Sullivan (56 mins), D Cullinane for Hayes (56 mins).
Referee: N Barrett (Cork).
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