With two minutes left, the sides were deadlocked and the game looked destined for extra-time. Cork had done all the running and scoring to get level. They appeared to have all the momentum at the right time but then the game jackknifed on one loose kickout.
Cork goalkeeper Anthony Casey kicked the restart straight to Conor Loftus who rifled the ball to the roof of the net. A minute later, a long ball was played in over the top and Liam Irwin showed brilliant ingenuity to palm the ball past the advancing Casey. Cork’s ambitions had just short-circuited in a puff of smoke.
Goals ultimately decided this match but their timing for Mayo was just as decisive as their impact. Mayo were gasping for air in first-half stoppage time when they raised two green flags. Replicating that feat so late in the game concussed Cork and denied them a second opportunity to make up that ground.
Irwin and Loftus bagged four of those goals, three of which were pulled out of the highest drawer. Although their scoring rate dried up for long periods of the second half, the control Mayo had around the middle in that period was also decisive, especially on kickouts, which they won 14-4.
The game ebbed and flowed throughout. The first half oscilliated so wildly that the dominance of both teams was almost broken into segments. Cork started like a train, Mayo took over, then Cork wrestled it back, before Mayo whacked them on the chin with 2-1 in injury time.
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Mayo’s 2-5 to 0-7 lead at the break almost seemed like an injustice but the statistics proved that it wasn’t; Mayo had 17 shots to Cork’s 10; the Connacht champions missed 10 scoring chances, Cork had missed three. Mayo had clocked eight wides, five of which were scoreable.
After losing their own first two kickouts, Mayo looked set to struggle in that sector, especially with Cork’s power and physique around the middle, but they were ahead on the kickout stat by 13-11 at the break.
Mayo led by 0-4 to 0-2 on 19 minutes before Cork finally hit a groove with three points in three minutes from Ryan Harkin, Sean O’Donoghue and Brian Coakley. After landing a brilliant point with his right foot, Coakley scored an even better one with his left two minutes later with two Mayo defenders hanging out of him. Harkin maintained that momentum when he pushed Cork three ahead by the 26th minute.
Mayo were dominant in possession but they couldn’t get the scoreboard moving. Cork’s position looked even better, having played against the breeze, but Mayo finally got the break they were searching for in the 31st minute when Diarmuid O’Connor palmed to the net. Irwin then landed a free before O’Connor turned over possession and Fionan Duffy released Irwin to drive the ball to the net.
O’Connor, who had taken his game to another level during Mayo’s league campaign, had made just six plays up to that point but those two plays illustrated how devastating O’Connor could be.
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Cork had the greater physique and power but Mayo’s speed and athleticism always got Cork thinking. Peter Kelleher and Coakley posed Cork’s biggest threat inside but the long direct ball into their full-forward line didn’t produce the dividend expected. Michael Hurley has the potential to be a brilliant player but he never found any rhythm and one point from play, along with being fouled for a converted free, was his maximum return from 14 plays.
Cork charged at Mayo from the beginning of the second half but Mayo had no intention of allowing them to stride away and Loftus rifled their third goal on 36 minutes. Mayo though, didn’t score again for another 14 minutes, by which stage they could feel the heat of Cork’s breath on the back of their neck.
Cork kept chipping away with points before Kelleher palmed a long free to the net entering the last 10 minutes. Harkin had made a difference after being moved to midfield before being hauled off but Cork looked to have levelled at just the right time. And then it was all over in a flash.
Star man: M Ruane (Mayo)
Mayo: M Flanagan; E O’Donoghue, S Cunniffe, D Kenny; M Plunkett (0-2) (M Lyons – 52mins), M Hall, S Akram; M Ruane (0-1), S Coen; F Boland, C Loftus (2-2, 2fs), D O’Connor (1-0); L Irwin (2-1 1 ’45), J Kelly (B Duffy – 54mins), F Duffy (J Carr – 40mins).
Cork: A Casey; M McSweeney, J Mullins, E Lavers; K Flahive, S Cronin, K Histon; S White (BC) (D O Duinin – 45mins) , R O’Toole (S O’Leary – 38mins); S O’Donoghue (0-4, 3fs 1 ’45), S Powter (0-1), R Harkin (0-2)(C Kiely – 53mins); B Coakley (0-5, 3fs), P Kelleher (1-0), M Hurley (S Sherlock – 56mins).