Galway's dream of a three-in- a row All-Ireland minor hurling championship was devastated at Croke Park yesterday by the second-half resolve of the first Cork side ever to use the back door, in a final of poor standards rescued partly by an exciting finish.
Cork manager John Considine explained the attitude of his wounded side following defeat in the Munster championship: "We were really badly hurt by that defeat and had worked hard at reorganising ourselves", he said.
The determination and venom of the beaten Munster champions in a wind-assisted second half was well demonstrated by drives of 90 yards out of defence by goalkeeper Martin Coleman and centre back John Gardiner.
Coleman's gigantic deliveryfrom a free 10 minutes into the second half led to the winners' first goal. Fergus Murphy ran on to the chance at the other end to send the sliothar crashing to the net.
Gardiner had the last say with a classic point from a free driven over from the same distance. Galway manager Josie Harte was as much upset as his players by the trend and was first to admit: "We were beaten by the better team."
The Cork half-back line got through a highly effective afternoon's work, repeatedly repulsing the best efforts of their opponents.Gardiner, in the centre, flanked by Shane Murphy and Michael Prout, clearly broke the back of the Galway challenge with their uncompromising style of confident rearguard action.
Ger Farragher, the Galway captain, who was hoping to emulate the feat of former Tipperary star Jimmy Doyle by winning a third medal, accounted for 1-6 of the team's total. His wonder goal towards the end, which reduced Cork's two-goal advantage to one, came as a result of a one-two with Joe Gantley and was an inspiring contribution.
Farragher's spectacular first-half point off a side-line cut 50 yards down the line was equally brilliant. Even greater disaster befell the Galway youths by their own inability to capitalise on the clear edge they enjoyed in terms of possession in the first half.
During that period, Cork's Kevin Hartnett was the best of the midfielders, but danger-man Kieran Murphy of Sarsfields was being kept reasonably quiet by the close marking of Ciarain Finnerty.
Murphy, in fact, was restricted to three pointed-frees in that first half and, although John O'Connor's well-taken point was the only Cork score from play in the opening 30 minutes, his point gave Cork an inspiring one-point lead in the second quarter.
A great individual effort by Adrian Cullinane and another pointed free from Farragher sufficed to give Galway a slender one point lead at half time, 0-5 to 0-4.
It became obvious from the outset of the second half that Galway were about to endure the brunt of Cork's drive and flair. Team captain Tomβs O'Leary levelled the scores and then Murphy of Sarsfields split the posts with a massive 71-yard free.
The more the match progressed the more obvious it became that Cork's impressive and almost unbridgeable defensive work was setting the side up for victory. Galway morale visibly suffered as a result. Yet, the general make-up of the Galway side tended to belie such notion even after Sarsfields' Kieran Murphy struck a fine goal from a Kieran Murphy (Erin's Own) line-ball to widen the gap to two goals with eight minutes remaining.
But, Fergus Murphy's insurance point and Gardiner's enormous 90-yard point at the close did a lot to sum up the heart of the very talented Cork side.
CORK:- M Coleman; J O'Mahony, C O'Connor, K Goggin; S Murphy, J Gardiner (0-1 free), M Prout; K Hartnett, B Smiddy; K Murphy (Erin's Own), T O'Leary (0-1), J O'Connor (0-2); K Murphy (Sarsfields) (1-5, two frees), S ╙ h┴ilp∅n, F Murphy (1-1). Subs: T Healy for C O'Connor (46), D O'Riordan for B Smiddy (57).
GALWAY: P Dullaghan; C Dervan, T ╙g Regan, C Finnerty; E Lynch, S Kavanagh, J O'Leary; T Tierney, G Farragher (1-6 side-line cut and three pointed frees); B Lucas, K Hayes, A Cullinane (0-2); J Gantley J Maher K Burke. Subs: K Briscoe for O'Leary (23), A Smith for Lucas (46), N Healy for Hayes (54).
Referee: T McIntyre (Antrim).
