NY GAA: Senior Football final preview: Down v Cork

Tyrone started the second half as Cork had the first. They had three points in the first seven minutes, although the third came from a sideline that was taken from the 14 even though it went t out on the five. It was a brilliant strike however.

Tyrone continued to attack, and but for clearances by Denis McCarthy and Alan Rafferty the damage could have been far worse.

Cork started to get back into the game as the influence of Daly and Crimmins again started to have effect. They started to move the ball forward, and but for the absence of players in the full forward line as the Cork men were behind the ball they could have had a few scores.

They finally broke through after 15 minutes when a long ball by Crimmins slipped through the hands of a Tyrone defender and fell to Lyng who headed for goal. His brilliant soccer shot was expertly turned away by John McGinley, but Joe O’Neill was following and he slid the rebound to the net.

Tyrone did come back at their opponents, but they had a hill to climb. Three points from Downey and Murtagh got them within two goals.

They them had a major break when a long ball from Eamonn Lyons bounced around the large parallelogram before Aiden Power grabbed it and shot low to the net.

They were within earshot, but the loss of Paul Mulherne to a straight red when he brought Francie Cleary to the ground put them at a huge disadvantage. 

Cork reacted in championship style. With four minutes left on the clock Pat Mahoney, who had arrived off the bench for the injured Daly, set up Boyle for a huge point.

On the resumption the defense with McCarthy and Rafferty prominent shut down a Tyrone attack, and the ball was worked forward to Lyng who slotted over for a five-point lead. Within a minute the same two players had two further points and the victory was secure.

The final grace coup de gras was when Tyrone was awarded a dubious penalty to say the least in the last 30 seconds. The kick was skied, however, by Murtagh and it sailed over the top.

Cork had many heroes on their historic day. Evan Byrne kept his defense tight and could not be faulted on the goal as a forest of bodies was in the way. Alan Rafferty completely nullified Murtagh to the point that the full forward went far out the field in search of ball.

Denis McCarthy was back to his best with a tigerish outing. David Crimmins was man of the match as he constantly broke up plays and stormed forward with ball in hand.

Jack Hoare was another in an excellent half back line who dominated. Rory Stafford got a hand to all the kickouts in the first half and never allowed Reilly or Lyons to get clean possession.

Rory Woods had his best performance to date, and he looks better suited to the half line where the action is. J.P. Boyle had a quite day and still notched 1-3, while Colin Daly before his injury did a huge amount of work.

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Nster.com