Fourteen-man Cork smothered a late Limerick revival to add their name to Monday morning’s All-Ireland quarter-final draw.
An unanswered 1-3 between the 44th and 53rd minute - that put Cork 1-13 to 0-10 ahead - had the hosts cruising to victory, but a Brian Donovan Limerick goal on the hour mark, followed two minutes later by the sending off of Cork sub Paul Walsh, brought the outcome back under the spotlight and ensured a nervy conclusion from a Cork perspective.
Crucially, though, Limerick were unable to narrow a two-point gap to the minimum and ratchet up the pressure on their opponents.
Where Paul Walsh will be most disappointed with himself for picking up two yellow cards in the space of a minute, Limerick’s Paul Maher was guilty of an equally brainless moment when lunging at Cork corner-back Kevin O’Donovan on 65 minutes to gift the home side a penalty and the opportunity to once more put sufficient daylight between the teams.
Brian Hurley took responsibility of the spot kick, the Cork joint-captain drilling a low effort to the bottom left corner of Donal O’Sullivan’s goal to leave the scoreboard reading 2-15 to 1-13.
Corner-back O’Donovan spent more of the second period in the opposition half of the field than he did his own, the Nemo clubman delivering a busy and efficient performance which included two important dispossessions and a point from play.
Fellow defenders Mattie Taylor and Sean Powter were also very effective in their forward forays. The former, after a difficult first half, ended up among Cork’s top performers.
Cork were more than able in dealing with what Limerick threw at them following Hurley’s penalty, Damien Gore and Colm O’Callaghan pointing in injury-time to return the county to the last eight of the football championship for the first time since 2019.
Limerick can count themselves a tad unfortunate to have found themselves behind at the break, even if the difference between the sides was all of a single point.
The visitors to Leeside were easily the more balanced of the teams in the opening half, as evidenced by their spread of five scores compared to Cork who had Steven Sherlock account for 0-6 of their first half 0-8 total.
Standing out on the Limerick scoresheet was right half-forward Adrian Enright who kicked three first half points from play. And so noticeable it was throughout the opening 35 minutes how much space Limerick were finding down Enright’s flank on the North Stand side of the field.
Along with Hugh Bourke, Peter Nash, and Cian Sheehan, this quartet cooked up a number of first half points from passes strung down that right hand channel. Cognisant of such, the Cork management eventually swapped half-back John Cooper onto that side in a bid to curb Enright’s playmaking and score-taking.
Enright’s hat-trick of points arrived during a confident and composed Limerick start that had them 0-6 to 0-4 in front on 24 minutes, Hugh Bourke (free), Gordon Brown, and Robbie Bourke the other Treaty contributors.
Sherlock’s second free on 26 minutes put Cork back within one, with two further points thereafter, off the back of turnovers won by Kevin O’Donovan and Eoghan McSweeney at the other end of the field, shoving the hosts in front on 32 minutes.
Limerick got back level on four occasions between the end of the first period and beginning of the second, and while they closed to two late on, they never were never able to regain the lost ground from Cork’s third quarter unanswered 1-3.
Scorers for Cork: S Sherlock (0-8, 0-5 frees, 0-1 ‘45); B Hurley (1-2, 1-0 pen); J O’Rourke (0-3); C O’Mahony (1-0); E McSweeney (0-2); K O’Donovan, C O’Callaghan, D Gore (0-1).
Scorers for Limerick: H Bourke (0-5, 0-3 frees); A Enright (0-4); B Donovan (1-0); J Ryan, G Brown (0-2); C Sheehan, J Naughton, R Bourke (0-1 each).
CORK: MA Martin: S Powter, M Shanley, K O’Donovan; J Cooper, R Maguire, M Taylor; I Maguire, C O’Callaghan; E McSweeney, J O’Rourke, D Dineen; S Sherlock, C O’Mahony, B Hurley.
SUBS: J Cahalane for Dineen (53); P Walsh for McSweeney (60); C Kiely for Sherlock (68); D Gore for O’Mahony (71); T Walsh for O’Donovan (73)
LIMERICK: D O’Sullivan; B Fanning, J Liston, S O’Dea; C Sheehan, I Corbett, G Brown; D Treacy, C Fahy; A Enright, B Donovan, P De Brún; H Bourke, R Bourke, P Nash.
SUBS: J Naughton for De Brún (HT); J Ryan for Nash, P Maher for Brown, M O’Donovan for Liston (all 55 mins); K Ryan for Maher (temporary, 63-64); K Ryan for R Bourke (66)
Referee: J Henry (Mayo).
