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The Rebel army came, saw and conquered.

It was a fantastic team performance and considering they played with 14 men for such a long time even makes their victory the more special.

In my last blog I said if Cork were to win 2 things needed to happen - 1. Cork needed to build up a lead and make Tyrone chase the game and force them to do uncharacteristic things with the ball and 2. Their young guns will need to rise to the occasion.
 
Well Cork ticked both boxes and after 20 minutes Tyrone looked in serious trouble as Cork were on top in every position and race into a huge lead.

Midfield were awsome

The mid-field diamond again for Cork were awesome - Murphy, O' Connor, Canty, O' Neill, Kelly were winning ball for fun while Kerrigan, O' Connor. Colm O' Neill and Goulding giving clean heels to all their markers.

Ref had a brain fart

Then the man in black had a brain fart and decided to send off Alan O' Connor. What a terrible call and on another day against Tyrone, this sloppy decision would have been punished.

But alas, Tyrone must have left their lucky charms up North as nothing seemed to going their way and even when it did they could not capitilise on it.
 
The second half was a dogged affair with Cork packing 12 players into defence, they made life a misery for the Tyrone forwards.

A reflection of this was when the whole wing forward line for Tyrone was substituted.

Cork deserved their win today. From the throw in they set out their stalls, winnning the hard ball, running at Tyrone at every given chance and when they were not in possession they worked tremendously hard on tackling Tyrone.

Never seen toughies like Hughes going down like they did against Cork

I never saw Tyrone players going down hurt like they did after colliding with Cork players.

I counted Kevin Hughes going down 3 times after tackles with Cork players and in fairness to Kevin, it would take a lot to knock that man.

Backline helped knock Tyrone's stuffing

It just shows the work Cork have done in the gym over the last 12 months.

They looked a powerful team today and they simply knocked the stuffing out of Tyrone today. the key to their success was their backlilne today, all 6 backs worked well as a unit and they received major support from midfield and their wing forward line.

They overturned Tyrone so many times that they actually reminded one of the normal Tyrone defence. Cork have learne alot in 12 months and will now be hell bent in finishing the job.
 
Tyrone looked shaky throughout tho Hughes played his heart out

What of Tyrone?

For one Sean Cavanagh's absence was a major blow to the team.

He is by far their best player and the player who virtually won an all ireland for them on his own last year. He cannot be replaced and i was surprised that they waited until the last 25 minutes to introduce him to this losing battle.

They struggled in midfield all day with Hughes trying his heart out but got no support from an unfit looking Macinley.

Tyrone normally win the breaking ball around the middle of the field, today they were second best here also with Miskella, Kelly, O' Leary, Kerrigan fattening on the crumbs.

Their defence today looked shaky throughout, so untypical of Tyrone, players giving possession away in their backline and more worrying, players like Gormley getting dispossessed - one knew that Cork had them on the ropes.

Quinn never got into game

Quinn in the corner never looked comfortable and Jordan and Harte were forced to mark their men today with both Cork forwards forcing them to run backwards as opposed to driving forward like they love doing.

After the match pundits were very fast writing players off, I believe that this is very immature.

A long winter ahead for Tyrone

Tyrone will have a long winter to dwell on the semi-final performance and no doubt will learn an awful lot about their players and how they now will deal with this setback.

It is my belief that this is not the end of the road for Tyrone, they have too many quality players on that team to go quietly into the sunset.

Will Dooher leave?

Maybe Dooher may say goodbye to his number 10 jersey that he has had so many brilliant days with. If he does he owes nothing to Tyrone but Tyrone owe him alot.

All the other players should remain, most of them are 28-29, alot of energy in those lads yet. 
 
PS - Congrats Armagh in minor match
 
Re the minor match well done to Armagh who were worth their favourite tag before the match. only for the brilliant Paul O' Sullivan in goals from Churchill, Kerry could have received a complete hammering. Kerry's minor famine continues, 1994 seems a while back, even i was a young lad back then!!!
 
Also congrats to the Kerry minor hurlers and my neighbour Patrick O' Keeffe after winning the all ireland B hurling title over the weekend, a great achievement by all concerned.
 
so roll on next weekend, The Royals vs The Kingdom
 
cheers

The Pony