All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Round 2B Qualifie

CORK 2-12 LIMERICK 0-10

By Jackie Cahill at Semple Stadium, Thurles

A first championship outing in a year for Alan O’Connor and a full championship debut for young full-forward Peter Kelleher were two of the more noteworthy elements from Cork’s eight-point victory over Limerick in this afternoon’s All-Ireland SFC round 2B qualifier.

Powerful midfielder O’Connor was back for the Rebels in the middle of the park, starting for the first time since the 2015 qualifier defeat to Kildare, while Kelleher was named at full-forward after two previous championship appearances as a sub.

Kelleher was good when he came off the bench in the Munster SFC semi-final defeat against Tipp and he contributed hugely today. The Kilmichael man scored a goal, could have had two more, and was a constant threat.

But there were also good attacking displays from captain Paul Kerrigan, who scored 1-3, and Mark Collins, who collected five points from play. Cork were ten points up in stoppage time before Limerick contributed the final two points of the game but in truth, the Shannonsiders were outclassed.

Better opposition could have troubled vulnerable Cork this afternoon but with O’Connor and Ian Maguire on song, the winners had a stranglehold around the middle third. Cork were 1-6 to 0-4 clear at half-time, with Kelleher netting at the second attempt in the 14th minute.

Cork could have had more first half goals but Colm O’Neill’s fifth-minute penalty was well saved by Donal O’Sullivan, Kelleher palmed an effort off the crossbar and Kerrigan blazed wide after cutting through.

Cork were 0-3 to 0-0 clear before Darragh Treacy opened Limerick’s account but John Brudair’s charges wouldn’t score again for 17 minutes and Cork took over to lead by 1-5 to 0-1. Despite having the breeze for the second half, Limerick were on the back-foot as Collins struck a deceptive effort off the crossbar before Kerrigan bagged a brace of points.

Kelleher forced another good save from O’Sullivan but Cork still led by eight points on a couple of occasions; with Limerick only getting as close as six in the second half. Kerrigan netted in stoppage time to add gloss to the final scoreline but vast improvement is needed ahead of next weekend’s latest assignment for Cork.

**Scorers for Cork: **P Kerrigan 1-3, M Collins 0-5, P Kelleher 1-0, C O’Neill (f), L Connolly (f), J O’Rourke & M Hurley 0-1 each.

**Scorers for Limerick: **I Ryan 0-4 (3f), D Treacy & I Corbett 0-2 each, S McSweeney (f) & S Buckley 0-1 each.

**CORK: **R Price; C O’Driscoll, E Cadogan, N Galvin; T Clancy, J Loughrey, B O’Driscoll; A O’Connor, I Maguire; P Kerrigan, M Collins, K O’Driscoll; C O’Neill, P Kelleher, L Connolly. Subs: S Powter for B O’Driscoll (h.t.), D Goulding for O’Neill (46), J O’Rourke for Connolly (49), R Deane for O’Connor (60), M Hurley for K O’Driscoll (65), P Kelly for Kelleher (68).

LIMERICK: D O’Sullivan; P Browne, S Cahill, J McCarthy; P Ranahan, S O’Dea, B Fanning; S Buckley, D Treacy; G Noonan, P Nash, T Childs; H Bourke, I Ryan, S McSweeney. Subs: I Corbett for Childs (27), E Hogan for McSweeney (47), P White for Ranahan (52), P Scanlan for Bourke (55), J Naughton for Nash (63), K Ryan for O’Dea (69).

Referee: N Mooney (Cavan).