Cork see off the young impersonators

DO YOU know what, but sometimes on a winter's day when the skies are grey and the crowd is listless and the play is both grey and listless, you'd long for a bit of an old shemozzle. Nothing X-rated mind, not championship grade aggro but just enough fists thrown and oaths muttered that you might fill a few hundred words on Monday morning with the pious beating of your own breast.

What else are you to write about when some young lads impersonating the All-Ireland champions are sent south to play a Cork team in the process of transition, when the host city is soaked in jazz and the home pitch is drenched by rain and every one of the few hundred sodden spectators would be classified as diehards in the census figures.

Just over two thousand people watched Cork wrap up two league points in Pairc Ui Chaoimh yesterday. Not one will bother to tell the grandchildren that they attended.

The people of Meath are said to be in a mean mood these times.

Down on the media and down on the powers that be. Sheriff Boothman and his Croke Park posse, having rounded up most of the faces on this month's batch of Most Wanted posters, Meath were forced to send in The Gang Who Couldn't Shoot Straight yesterday. With a county championship proceeding apace and the pleasure of an All-Ireland win not yet subsided, one supposed that Meath could think of more pleasant ways of passing a Sunday afternoon.

What do you do for instance if you are Tommy Dowd, having toiled long and honest for Meath and Dunderry all summer and you find yourself on a dank day in the company of Niall Cahalane, looking hungry as a half-fed hound. There must he a temptation to go missing. Yet Dowd and Meath made a fist of it.

Cork for their part are getting used to life under the rigorous dispensation of Larry Tompkins. So far the team has assumed some of Larry's leanness if not his genius. They looked keen and enthusiastic and players like Colin Corkery looked lighter than they have in some years.

They made their straightforward intentions clear from before the throw-in, shifting Liam Honohan to full forward and putting the first couple of balls his way. With behemoths like Honohan and Corkery operating on the inside line Cork have the luxury of playing it quick when they haven't the time for anything more thoughtful.

Meath took an early lead through Cathal Sheridan, the Moynalvey player who has spent the last few years threatening to emerge as the next big thing. For the first 20 minutes, Sheridan at one end and Colin Corkery at the other gave a little demonstration of the art of dead ball kicking.

Corkery kicked impeccably, Sheridan no less so but his chances to display his virtuosity were more limited. Much of Cork's possession yielded frees, much of Meath's yielded wides (six before the break).

They got to the break with Cork leading by eight points to three, the home side's first score from play having come through Brian Corcoran on 22 minutes. The opening 30 minutes were sprightly enough considering that the pitch was soft enough for players to leave mudtracks everytime they sprinted.

Meath's midfield of Kevin Cahill and Nigel Nestor did what they could in the more vaunted company they encountered. Unfortunately most of what they dug out had to be delivered at haste.

Only a fool would have attempted to get past Niall Cahalane on yesterday's form. Playing first on Dowd and then on the pacier Jody Devine, Cahalane had one of those days when his flashing pate seemed to be at the pivot of everything positive. Nobody on the field seemed to be enjoying the football so much. He scored a point early in the second half which established the platform for Cork's subsequent dominance.

After the break Cork were much more inclined to eschew directness in favour of thought and moved the ball well, necklacing together the short passes and clipping over four points from play which drew no reply except a converted free from Sheridan.

That dominance was scarcely threatened by Meath's goal on 50 minutes. Tommy Dowd, now operating at full forward was fouled under a high ball by Ronan McCarthy. Sheridan stepped up and slotted the penalty home.

That score presaged a brief spell of pressure from Meath but. in search of another goal, they found only a Cork defence which looked hungrier and physically stronger. If Meath glimpsed any light at the end of the tunnel it was obliterated surely by a superb point from sub Fachtna Collins who scored from almost 50 yards out on the left to stretch Cork's lead to six points again.

That drained what little suspense the afternoon still held. Corkery hit the bar with a goal chance and saw another fisted effort fall into the lap of Cormac O'Sullivan.

At the death Meath had a goal from a quick free disallowed. Reminded us of better days and bigger crowds.