Galway dominate Cork to reach All-Ireland final

ByDavid Mohan

BBC Sport NI journalist

Galway booked a place in the All-Ireland hurling final for the first time since 2018 as they upset Cork with a 2-26 to 1-18 win at Croke Park on Saturday.

The Tribesmen, who also won their first Leinster title in eight years last month, produced a strong first half and stunning second to shut down a Cork side that was seeking a third-straight final appearance.

It turned into a similar day for the Rebels from their previous appearance at Croke Park as in last year's final, it went badly wrong in the second period and it was same again as facing an organised defensive structure, they lost their way and hit just five points after the break.

Galway's last Liam MacCarthy success came in 2017 under the stewardship of Micheal Donoghue before losing the following year's final to Limerick whom they could meet in this year's decider should the Shannonsiders get past Clare in Sunday's second semi-final.

They got to hurling's biggest day with an excellent performance, suffocating Cork and leaving plenty of space to attack which they did with aplomb.

With 14 different scorers across the piece, Galway's team display was underlined as substitute Conor Cooney's 1-1 made him his team's top scorer.

From front to back, Galway's leaders stood up while Jason Rabbitte produced a man-of-the-match performance with three points to his name.

Cork just didn't have the same spread with six scorers, led by the excellent Brian Hayes with seven points, but even his influence was curbed in the second period by Galway's ravenous display and the Rebels would lose captain Darragh Fitzgibbon to a second yellow midway through the second period which compounded their woes.

Galway couldn't have wished for a better start, landing the first three points as their tactic of dropping back to smother Cork and create space at the other end immediately clicked - a sign of what was to come.

One of those scorers was Cathal Mannion, wearing number 11 on his back but operating as a sweeper, as Galway posed similar problems that Cork faced in last year's All-Ireland final defeat by Tipperary.

The Tribesmen may have had nine different scorers in the opening half which was evidence of their ability to rotate and get into scoring positions, but converted just 13 of 22 opportunities in the first 35 minutes - 28 from 46 overall - which highlighted the chances that were being created.

Cork took a while to figure out the puzzle with Shane Barrett getting them off the mark five minutes in, but they would soon see where they could make hay as Hayes struck the first of his six first-half points.

Daithi Burke, with his knee heavily strapped after picking up an injury in the Leinster final, seemed hampered by the injury as he slowed when closing in on Hayes and this was not lost on the Rebels, who began to target this match-up with regularity.

Galway would reply to this in fine style with Conor Whelan putting Darragh Neary through and with space to attack, the wing-forward cut in and finished to the net.

With Hayes, team captain Fitzgibbon and Alan Connolly accurate from frees, Cork were growing into the game and while Whelan ensured all of Galway's six starting forwards were on the board by the 13th minute, the Rebels were finding a rhythm.

Galway goalkeeper Darach Fahy was called into action to deny Diarmuid Healy after Hayes again made a nuisance of himself with turnover, with Connolly eventually tapping over his first from play.

Hayes continued to prove a thorn in the Galway side when finding space to gather and score, reducing the gap to one, with Cork then hitting the front for the first time on 24 minutes as Eoin Downey sent a superb line ball down to Alan Walsh, who turned Cillian Trayers and blasted to the roof of the net.

Trayers would soon move onto Hayes after he'd landed his own fourth and fifth scores, while Galway's Aaron Niland ended a barren 12 minutes for the Tribesmen from a free late in the half.

Hayes' sixth of the half put four between them, but Galway enjoyed a productive injury-time with scores from team captain Darren Morrissey, Tom Monaghan and a Niland free as the gap was down to one at the break with Cork leading 1-13 to 1-12.

That free also resulted in a yellow card for Cork full-back Damian Cahalane, who was withdrawn at half-time to be replaced by Cormac O'Brien, resulting in Eoin Downey moving onto the towering Rabbitte, who had been posing questions of his own.

The problems would quickly mount for Cork upon the resumption as after an early exchange of points, Galway would find another gear.

Putting the squeeze on Cork's restarts while flooding their defence, they began to dominate and had the space in attack to create opportunities and reeled off nine points on the spin to move eight ahead with 50 minutes played.

Cork were in a similar position to last year's All-Ireland final when the game completely got away from them and they just couldn't seem to get onto ball, being hounded and crowed with Galway's numbers at the back leaving them nowhere to go.

Hayes would land their first score in 16 minutes with substitute William Buckley adding another as the Rebels' challenge seemed to be gaining momentum once again.

However, disaster would strike in the 55th minute as Fitzgibbon - cautioned early in the second period - picked up a second yellow for clipping the back of Ronan Glennon's helmet when attempting a hook.

Considering the issues Cork were having with Galway's stacked defence, a numerical disadvantage made their task much greater and the gap remained six with 10 to play.

Cork needed a goal to spark themselves into life and Barrett was denied by a superb Fahy save and while they managed a couple of raids, there was no way through Galway's tigerish defensive stand.

The life was draining from Cork with the game up and Galway finished in style as after Cooney became their 14th scorer of the day, the St Thomas' man cut through on goal in added time, finishing at the second attempt to seal a glory day for the men from the west as they return to the decider.

Galway: Darach Fahy; Joshua Ryan (0-1), Cillian Trayers, Darren Morrissey (0-1); Padraic Mannion (0-1), Daithí Burke, Ronan Glennon (0-3); Tiernan Killeen (0-1), Gavin Lee (0-2); Tom Monaghan (0-3), Cathal Mannion (0-3, 1f), Darragh Neary (1-0); Conor Whelan (0-3), Jason Rabbitte (0-3), Aaron Niland (0-3, 3f)

Subs: Conor Cooney (1-1) for A Niland (47), Cian Daniels for J Ryan (56), John Fleming (0-1) for T Killeen (62), Brian Concannon for G Lee (67), Seán Linnane for D Neary (70+1).

Cork: Patrick Collins; Niall O'Leary, Damien Cahalane, Seán O'Donoghue; Eoin Downey, Rob Downey, Mark Coleman; Tim O'Mahony, Tommy O'Connell; Darragh Fitzgibbon (0-2), Shane Barrett (0-4, 2f), Diarmuid Healy; Alan Walsh (1-0), Alan Connolly (0-4, 3f), Brian Hayes (0-7).

Subs: Cormac O'Brien for D Cahalane (HT), Robbie O'Flynn for T O'Connell (48), William Buckley (0-1) for A Connolly (51), Barry Walsh for A Walsh (52), Ger Millerick for E Downey (61).

Referee: Johnny Murphy (Limerick)