Cork leave no one in doubt

All-Ireland SHC Final Cork 1-21 Galway 1-16: With all the self-assurance of their tradition and all the inevitability that history has bestowed on this final pairing, Cork swept to a 30th All-Ireland hurling title at Croke Park yesterday. There was no ambiguity about the champions' victory despite a Galway challenge that, if uneven, was certainly persistent.

Crisis point was reached in the 49th minute of yesterday's Guinness All-Ireland final. Damien Hayes's goal closed Galway to within a point of defending champions Cork. How a side retains an All-Ireland is only a detail in the record books, but break it down match by match and calculate the margin for error.

Even in these days of qualifier rounds and second chances, the biggest matches a team plays are invariably the ones it can't afford to lose. Cork rode out the crises against Waterford and Clare, those points when their crown was wobbling precariously, and that stage duly arrived yesterday.

Yet, in retrospect this was a smooth operation. Cork led from alpha to omega and finished strongly, but in the present tense matches don't unfold predictably. At half-time there must have been apprehension about the tenuous, two-point lead and the nagging reproach that it should have been more.

When the margin slipped to the minimum and the challengers looked to have crucial momentum, that was the sticking point. And Cork responded.

Paradoxically, it was Galway who looked more shaken by their goal, and although they grappled plausibly for the next 10 minutes their game flagged for the final 10 as Cork drove for home.

It is the mark of a good team that they can raise their game when a match is in the balance and the mark of a great team that they can give their best performances on the biggest occasions.

This was Cork's best display of the season. There were fewer loose ends and fewer question marks. Not everyone played well or up to their capabilities, but the collective effort was well up on previous matches this year and too much for their opponents' more patchy contribution.

Galway can take a lot from this season and how it has generally transformed the team from angst-ridden disappointment into contenders, but there will nonetheless be both angst and suggestions of under-achievement about yesterday.

Cork's defence was the foundation stone of the victory. Centre back Ronan Curran turned the corner on a couple of indifferent displays to give his best performance of the championship and blunt the impact of David Forde, whose muscular contributions had been so important to Galway's progress to the final.

With that keystone in place the backs had coherence and structure. There were still fires to be put out in that half-back line, with John Gardiner falling somewhat off his Hurler of the Year standard in the battle with Alan Kerins, who was quietened only when Seán Ó hAilpin switched on to him.

But Cork's superiority on this line was - not for the first time - the platform on which success was built.

There were other bright spots. Centrefield, for instance, an area in which Galway looked particularly well equipped to compete, was decisively Cork's.

Fergal Healy played well for Galway, but neither he nor David Tierney could plug the holes punched by the hard running of Tom Kenny and Jerry O'Connor.

If there was one cardinal failing in Galway's game it was the inaccurate use of the ball. Sloppy clearances and misplaced passes gave away possession and frequently resulted in scores.

By the 11th minute Galway trailed by 0-5 to 0-1 and were looking slow and awkward.

For Cork, Brian Corcoran started in great style, marauding around Tony Óg Regan at full forward and playing a central role in three of the points.

In the 16th minute the match teetered dangerously on the brink of a landslide. Diarmuid O'Sullivan burst out on to a ball directed in at Niall Healy and launched a lengthy clearance that resulted in a well-taken goal by Ben O'Connor and a six-point lead.

Greatly to Galway's credit, they clung on for dear life until the storm abated, and the second quarter provided their best spell of the match. It was still frustrating for the team that they weren't making as much as possible out of chances.

Kerins, for all his good ball-winning, dropped a ball short and failed to finish a goal chance, instead giving Donal Óg Cusack the opportunity to make the first of a couple of significant saves.

It was a good afternoon for the Cork goalkeeper who controlled his puck-outs efficiently as well as minding his goal alertly, and although he conceded what was only a second goal in four All-Ireland finals, it came from a rebound off another good save.

Other chances went untaken. Point attempts dropped short and wides were hit, adding to what could have been an agitated sense of foreboding had not Ger Farragher's free-taking made such steady inroads into the deficit.

Farragher had a good match and sent over two points from play in his total of 0-8 and caused trouble from play throughout, providing a reliable target for delivered ball and giving O'Sullivan a harder time of it than young Healy had managed, although the teenager's tally of one point, one pointed free and a yellow card for his illustrious marker wasn't all bad.

From the time of O'Connor's goal until the break, Galway out-scored Cork by 0-7 to 0-3; Farragher's dead-ball striking accounted for four points.

It left only two between the teams at half-time.

The second half provided essentially more of the same. Galway got within range but Cork's reach was longer, their attacks faster and harder hitting.

In the 46th minute, for instance, Kerins, who was in excellent fettle by this stage, looked unlucky not to get a free from referee Séamus Roche - who let a good bit go during the match - but the ball was moved swiftly up the field for Ben O'Connor to fire the first of four second-half points in what was a Man of the Match display.

This was despite the excellence of Derek Hardiman, who marked O'Connor for most of the match and who had claims on being Galway's best player.

Hayes's goal - a dextrous piece of finishing on a loose ball after Cusack had saved from Richie Murray - threw the match into the melting pot, cutting a deficit that had grown to four and giving Galway a strong foothold.

But Cork again responded. Gardiner's 70-metre free pushed out the margin and any time the champions were threatened they kicked on a bit farther.

Galway's changes didn't have the desired effect. Kevin Hayes's bulk might have been expected to discomfit O'Sullivan but he wasn't able to make an opening. Kevin Broderick's arrival didn't fling open the gates, and he and Damien Hayes - tightly contained by Brian Murphy - started looking for goal openings before the urgency of the situation demanded that good point opportunities be ignored.

Amid all the flailing of Galway's attack, Cork remained composed and struck back with lightning speed and accuracy. Galway didn't score for the last 10 minutes while the champions clipped three points, the last two appropriately from the quicksilver O'Connor twins, which to rising acclaim copperfastened that status with some panache.

CORK: 1. D Cusack; 4. B Murphy, 3. D O'Sullivan, 2. P Mulcahy; 5. J Gardiner (0-1, a free), 6. R Curran, 7. S Ó hAilpin; 8. T Kenny (0-3), 9. J O'Connor (0-2); 12. T McCarthy (0-2), 11. N McCarthy (0-1), 13. K Murphy; 10. B O'Connor (1-7, two points from frees), 14. B Corcoran (0-2), 15. J Deane (0-3, all frees). Subs: 22. N Ronan for K Murphy (39 mins), 23. K Murphy (Erin's Own) for N McCarthy (63 mins).

GALWAY: 1. L Donoghue; 2. D Joyce, 3. T Regan, 4. O Canning; 5. D Hardiman (0-1), 6. S Kavanagh, 7. D Collins; 8. F Healy (0-2), 9. D Tierney (0-1); 10. R Murray, 11. D Forde, 12. A Kerins (0-3); 13. G Farragher (0-8, six frees), 14. N Healy (0-1), 15. D Hayes (1-0). Subs: 24. K Broderick for N Healy (57 mins), 26. K Hayes for Forde (65 mins).

Referee: S Roche (Tipperary).

Attendance: 81,136.