Dublin win first league game in Cork in 33 years as Jack McCaffrey returns

NFL Division One: Cork 2-10 Dublin 0-18

On Temperance Sunday, everyone was a little light-headed by the end. Dublin won their first football League game in Cork after an astonishing 33-year hiatus, but they had to survive a bolt of lightning in the eighth minute of stoppage time, when Brian Hurley’s shot was deflected onto the post by David O’Hanlon. By then both teams had been reduced to 14 men, after a second half shaped by a quick-fire round of disciplinary bingo. In a harmless match, anybody’s number could have come up.

Without being wildly impressive at any stage, Dublin were better than Cork for most of the second half, and were electrified in the last quarter by Jack McCaffrey’s first appearance in a Dublin jersey for 1,087 days. In his short cameo it looked like he had never been away: he kicked one point, set up another, and careered up the left flank as if it was a taxi lane and he had the only permit.

The game, though, descended into farce for a 15 or 20 minute period after the Cork centre fielder Ian Maguire was dismissed on a second yellow card, three minutes into the second half. Maguire’s offence was a feathery tug on a Dublin player’s jersey, and once the referee Seamus Mulhare set the threshold so low, he was obliged to book players for a series of minor misdemeanours.

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As soon as Peader O’Cofaigh Byrne was booked Dessie Farrell immediately took him off for fear of what might happen next, but he couldn’t save Lee Gannon from a second yellow for a late shoulder on Sean Powter; Mulhare didn’t see the incident but he clearly took advice in his ear piece and sent the Dublin wing back to the line, nine minutes after Maguire. By the end, 10 yellow cards had been issued.

Dessie Farrell described both sendings off as “a little bit soft.” John Cleary was more expansive: “Soft is being kind to it. If those type of things are going to go on to the championship, I wouldn’t think that referee will get many games up in the north – if you are going to get sendings-off like that. Both of them were fierce harsh altogether.”

Dublin had stretched five points clear when Gannon was dismissed, and playing with the breeze, they looked like they would pull away. But Mattie Taylor dragged Cork back into the game with a thunderous goal after 54 minutes, and there was never more than two points between the teams in the time that remained.

Cork did well to stay in touch, which must say something about their incremental progress. But it is also a reflection of Dublin’s reduced capacity to atomise inferior teams. Ciaran Kilkenny, Cormac Costello and Niall Scully were all peripheral, and they needed the impetus that McCaffrey and James McCarthy gave them off the bench in the final quarter. Nothing seems easy anymore.

Farrell was deadpan about the performance, as you would expect. “It’s a very competitive division. There’s Cork, two defeats now and Cork are a very decent side. They’ll be disappointed probably to find themselves in that situation. It could have been us today. Cork probably missed a lot more chances than they would have wanted. We could have ended up on the receiving side.”

Cork trailed by a point at the break, despite having played with a strong breeze. For all their measured build-up play, and smart use of long kick-passes to inside targets, Cork butchered too many chances.

The excellent Chris Og Jones fluffed an early goal chance when O’Hanlon smothered his timid shot from close range, and Maurice Shanley had a goal chalked off for being in the square.

The goal chance that Cork converted mid-way through the half was beautifully fashioned. Taylor found Jones with a diagonal ball and his scoring pass to Eoghan McSweeney was perfectly timed. The Cork wing-forward planted his shot in the roof of the net.

That score put Cork three points in front, 1-5 to 0-5, and they weren’t flattered by that lead. Dublin couldn’t get to grips with Brian Hurley and the Cork captain kicked four sweet points in the first half.

The difference between the teams, though, was efficiency. Cork kicked seven wides in the first half while Dublin’s visits into the scoring zone were more consistently productive. Con O’Callaghan kicked four points from four chances by the end; Brian Fenton kicked a point and made three others; McCarthy and McCaffrey both scored: load bearing players, making a critical difference.

Dean Rock’s first point from play brought Dublin level just before the break, and Costello’s only score put them in front in first half stoppage time. From that point, it used to be a simple story.

Cork: M Martin, M Shanley, D O’Mahony, T Walsh, L Fahy, R Maguire, M Taylor (1-0), C O’Callaghan, I Maguire, E McSweeney (1-1), S Powter, B O’Driscoll, B Hurley (0-8, 0-3 frees, 0-1 mark), C Jones, S Sherlock (0-1, free). Subs: R Deane for Sherlock 43 mins; C Corbett for Jones 55 mins; J O’Rourke for McSweeney 62 mins; K O’Hanlon for Powter 63 mins; F Herlihy for O’Driscoll 70 mins. Sent off: I Maguire (Cork) 38 mins.

Dublin: D O’Hanlon, D Newcombe (0-2), C Murphy (0-1), M Fitzsimmons, L Gannon, J Small, T Lahiff, B Fenton, P O’Cofaigh Byrne, N Scully, C Kilkenny, R McGarry (0-1), C Costello (0-1), D Rock (0-6, 0-4 frees), C O’Callaghan (0-4, 0-1 mark). Subs: J McCarthy (0-1) for O’Cofaigh Byrne 45 mins; C Basquel for McGarry 55 mins; D Byrne for Scully 55 mins; J McCaffrey (0-1) for Murphy 58 mins; L O’Dell for Costello 69 mins. Sent off: Lee Gannon (Dublin) 47 mins.

Referee: S Mulhare (Laois).