Cork 2-11 Kildare 1-11: As ever, Cork must face Kerry for a second time in the same season if their quest for an All-Ireland is to be finally realised. That arduous fixture comes on August 24th back at headquarters.
At least they face down their old nemesis safe in the knowledge that they are rapidly approaching their collective peak as a football panel. Now they must endeavour to produce a 70 minute performance.
Kildare may have been out of their depth anyway, but the fact it took a full 19 minutes to register a score was a clear indication that four games in successive weekends is an unfair and unnecessary burden to place on amateur sportsmen.
The decision was dependant on maximising attendance at Croke Park by putting this All Ireland football quarter-final on the undercard of the hurling semi-final between Cork and Kilkenny.
By the time Eamonn Callaghan landed the first point Cork had 2-3 in the bag thanks to goals from John Hayes and Michael Cussen, both of which came from direct high balls into the scoring zone.
Kildare's rookie manager Kieran McGeeney - attempting to stay in the championship longer than his native Armagh — hadn't turned into stone on the sideline either, introducing four players as he attempted to expose a few gaps in an excellent Cork
defence. Team captain Killian Brennan was one of the men sacrificed.
The Rebel half back line seemed to be scooping up every breaking ball as Conor Counihan's team showed no ill-effects from losing captain Graham Canty and veteran midfielder Nicholas Murphy to injury.
Kildare did pull matters back to 2-5 to 0-5 by the interval with Alan Smyth particularly prominent, kicking two decent points from play.
Any chance of a revival, however, looked to be gone when Cork rattled off three early second-half points through John Hayes, Pearse O'Neill and Michael Cussen.
Cork did fade once the nine point lead was established and on 49 minutes Diarmuid Duggan pulled down Smyth en route to goal, but Ronan Sweeney's poorly struck penalty was easily saved by Alan Quirke.
Kildare did manage to keep it interesting to the finish with John Doyle weighing in with 1-4 in the second-half, including a last minute penalty after Dermot Early was dragged down by Ger Spillane. Cork survived.
Cork: 1 A Quirke; 2 D Duggan, 3 D Kavanagh, 4 A Lynch; 5 B O'Regan, 6 G Spillane, 7 K O'Connor; 11 P O'Neill (0-2), 9 A O'Connor; 14 D O'Connor, 24 J Masters (0-1), 12 S O'Brien; 13 D Goulding (0-3, one free), 21 M Cussen (1-2), 15 J Hayes (1-3). Substitutions: 17 M Shields for D Kavanagh (46 mins), 18 J Miskella for B O'Regan, 23 F Goold for D O'Connor (both 51 mins), 27 P Kelly for A O'Connor (59 mins), 19 N O'Leary for D Duggan (66 mins).
Kildare: 1 E Murphy; 2 M O'Flaherty, 3 K O'Neill, 4 A MacLochlainn; 5 E Bolton, 6 M Foley, 7 M Scanlon; 8 K Brennan (capt), 9 D Early (0-1); 10 J Kavanagh, 11 P O'Neill, 12 E Callaghan (0-1); 13 A Smyth (0-3), 28 K Donnelly, 15 J Doyle (1-5, four frees, goal pen). Substitutions: 17 D Flynn for K Brennan, 14 G White for M Scanlon (both 17 mins), 18 M Conway (0-1, free) for P O'Neill (23 mins), 19 R Sweeney for K Donnelly (26 mins), 24 A Rainbow for J Kavanagh (65 mins).
Referee: P McEnaney (Monaghan).