All-Ireland SHC Final/Cork - 0-17 Kilkenny 0-9: It's hard to be precise about the moment when it became clear Cork wouldn't be giving up their status as hurling's leading county but yesterday's historic All-Ireland final slipped further and further into the red zone until it was emphatically won. So yet again the Rebel county have proved masters at upholding the status quo.
The big performance at Croke Park yesterday came complete with redemption. Niall McCarthy's missed chances in last year's final between the teams had passed into lore as the moments at which Cork could have been contenders.
Yesterday the Cork centre forward took the match by storm just as Kilkenny began to stall.
His clever positioning and forcefulness in the air created the platform on which Cork built their 29th All-Ireland success. As he thundered into the game, McCarthy punished Kilkenny on the scoreboard with three killing points and inspired his team with his sense of what was possible. Twice he equalised the match and his third score pushed Cork two ahead.
History's clammy hand fell on the shoulder of deposed champions Kilkenny. Three times the county has had the chance to go clear at the top of hurling's roll of honour and three times the opportunity has gone unfulfilled. Cork on the other hand have now taken every chance that has presented itself, five times in all.
With such huge privileges at stake it was no surprise that the match itself was a mediocre affair. Although not a vicious match, both John Hoyne and John Gardiner lived dangerously in the second half on yellow cards but survived.
An edgy, scrappy first half proved richer in talking points than it had in scores and left the result wholly in the balance.
The champions led by a point, 0-7 to 0-6, despite having had enough of the play to be in a better position.
Even Cork in their relief still had the nagging regrets of a couple of goal chances that had gone stray.
Good scoring chances in All-Irelands generally punish either the side that concedes or the side that misses them.
But with everything on the table to play for it was Cork who hit the winning streak. Everything favoured them in the second half: the wind blew at their backs, their performance levels lifted significantly and the big imponderable also fell their way with Kilkenny demonstrating conclusively that their tanks were empty.
This had been a possibility going into the final. And sure enough the jostle and hassle of a hard road that took the champions to the verge of history ended up draining them rather than toughening their sinews for one last effort.
In retrospect the early signs take on added significance. Within seconds Eddie Brennan had shot his first wide and by the time he followed with a second a minute or so later, the prospect of him reliving last year's nightmare was looming like a shadow on a mortuary wall.
But unlike last year there would be no deliverance from elsewhere. Captain Martin Comerford started well on Diarmuid O'Sullivan and clicked a couple of points but after he moved to make way for Henry Shefflin he never recaptured that earlier brio.
Shefflin himself, so elemental in the team's best moments this season, got off to a bad start and struggled to improve. The wisdom of starting Kilkenny's most important strike forward on the opposing defender best equipped to mark him eventually sank home but by then Seán Ó hAilpín was well into the rhythm of another powerful display and Shefflin was struggling.
To be fair to Kilkenny's management the whole attack was below par and despite desperate efforts to kick-start something by switching everyone around - Shefflin tried four positions - nothing rhymed.
Shefflin ended up touring defenders who had become increasingly emboldened by the afternoon's unfolding events and ended up with just one point from play.
Shefflin nearly readjusted the match's settings in the 57th minute when he pulled on an incoming ball but the shot was at Donal Óg Cusack and he saved before unleashing an attack that ended with the ever-menacing Joe Deane being comprehensively fouled for a free he converted.
Given Kilkenny's parlous state it was surprising Cork didn't take earlier command. But they were tentative going forward in the first half and until the 31st minute hadn't scored from play.
The hard running that had become a feature of their game seemed deliberately suppressed as they went for quick ball into the half forwards.
This didn't work. Kilkenny's half backs were solid in the first period. Tommy Walsh snaffled loose ball and the superb JJ Delaney gratefully pocketed everything surprisingly sent in his direction by Cork. A pity because on the inside Donal O'Grady's men looked dangerous.
Brian Corcoran emphasised his sporting class by delivering his best performance of the summer on the big day. In so doing he has bettered the top three full backs of the modern game, Philip Maher, Darragh Ryan and yesterday Noel Hickey.
Yesterday was however a central achievement. Having returned from a two-year retirement earlier in the year with no guarantees, Corcoran has struggled to be the sort of influence he had been in his pomp. But yesterday he lavishly repaid O'Grady's faith by neutralising Hickey, who had been dominant in last year's final between the teams but ended up being moved yesterday, and striking two lovely points.
The second was the match's last and summed up his colossal day. In injury-time he went to the ball on the right-hand sideline with James Ryall and hustled the defender into losing control of the situation.
Corcoran proceeded to cut and shoot from a tight angle before sinking to his knees in acclamation of the moment.
That was part of the central reason Cork won.
Maybe it was motivation from last year's defeat or maybe their opponents didn't have anything left but on the day Kilkenny coaxed good performances from few enough of their team whereas Cork's big guns nearly all delivered and even those with patchy records this season came up with the goods when it mattered.
For instance Kieran Murphy, like Corcoran, had his best match of the championship and as well as the two points he tacked up, posed a constant threat on the right flank.
Grateful as they probably were to be only a point adrift at the break Cork must have fretted over the loss of service on captain Ben O'Connor's long-range free taking as well as the failure to create more chances in the full forwards.
The best of these came in the 13th minute when Corcoran created space for Deane to run onto a ball. Deane rode the foul from Michael Kavanagh (showing no signs of his doubtful hamstring) and shot for goal but the ball flew back off the crossbar and Ben O'Connor's follow-up went wide.
By this stage Kilkenny's centrefield had the edge. Both Ken Coogan and Derek Lyng were using their physique well and exploiting some loose marking to take up some good positions.
Lyng also managed a barnstorming point after a rumbustious solo through the middle.
All changed however in the second half. Kilkenny's laboured forward moves ground to a halt as Cork's defence rose magnificently. O'Sullivan, having suffered early on, established himself on the edge of the square and hit sensible ball and Wayne Sherlock and John Browne - a 25th minute replacement - for the injured Brian Murphy controlled the approaches.
The half backs - considered Kilkenny's equals before the match - proved their credentials. Ó hAilpín maintained his crucial early edge and on the other wing John Gardiner gave a focused and urgent display winning ball and taking on the opposition, punishing them with his runs.
At centre back Ronan Curran had been unfazed by Hoyne's plans to restrict his role and in the second half his distribution from centre back was tremendous.
Kilkenny's increasingly frantic attempts to break the Cork defence were in contrast to the calm and collected way the winners picked and chose their final ball, for example the lovely pass played by Deane into Tom Kenny's path in the 68th minute sending the athletic midfielder in for the penultimate point.
Corcoran had the ultimate - in all senses - score and the red tide wasn't for turning.
