Galway...2-15 Cork...1-13: Galway and their manager, Matt Murphy, earned themselves a second successive crack at Kilkenny in the All-Ireland minor final thanks to the scoring prowess of their inside forwards, in particular Karl Wade. Yesterday's classy performance, against a decent Cork side, at Croke Park bodes well for the rematch.
"These fellas are from the top drawer," said Murphy. "Everyone in the county is telling us we're not good enough so we'll be looking forward to the final."
There were plenty of other notable contributors to the cause. In particular, John Lee produced a towering performance at centre back especially when Cork upped the tempo in the final 10 minutes.
Wade brought his tally to 1-9 entering the final quarter to stretch the lead to six, as Galway seemed set to coast into next months final. But as Croke Park began to fill with Cork followers for the main event their youths raised their game.
Cathal Naughtan got their goal in the 51st minute with a thunderous strike from the 21-yard line. Then came scores from Patrick Cronin, Kevin Canty and Naughtan to leave just a goal between them. But Barry Hanley and Joe Canning pulled Galway clear again, Canning's point the real killer blow as it came after Lee broke up a Cork attack and switched play downfield.
Corner forward Canning, the 15-year-old brother of senior player Ollie, is another who will test Kilkenny's defence in the final. On 20 minutes he claimed Galway's first goal after Ken O'Halloran stopped the initial shot from Kevin Coen.
Cronin kept Cork in touch but the scoring prowess of Wade and Canning always looked like being the difference.
At half-time they led 1-8 to 0-7.
Wade really stamped his class on affairs with a superbly taken goal eight minutes into the second half, and it was now that little things began to go against Cork. Brendan Ring showed an excellent turn of pace to lose his marker but Mark Herlihy batted his shot to safety. The goalkeeper was another stand-out performer in a Galway team that look likely to push the champions to the limit on September 12th.
GALWAY: M Herlihy; P Loughnane, G Mahon, C O'Donovan; M Ryan, J Lee, K Kilkenny; A Carey, D Kennedy; K Coen, K Hynes, V Coone (0-2); J Canning (1-1), K Wade (1-9, 3f), B Hanley (0-2). Subs: B Murphy for A Carey (37 mins), E Collins (0-1) for K Coen (40 mins), K Walsh for M Ryan (59 mins).
CORK: K O'Halloran; G O'Driscoll, N Horgan, M McCarthy; E Cadogan, S O'Neill (0-1, 1f), B Coleman; R Conway, G O'Leary; P Cronin (0-8, 4f), E Murphy (0-1), C Naughtan (1-2); P O'Brien, K Canty (0-1), B Ring.
Referee: B Gavin (Offaly).
