Donegal Seniors beat Cork

Cork 0-8 Donegal 1-15

Donegal made short work of Cork in a one sided affair. With the rebels out of contention, and Donegal looking to book a place in the senior semi-finals, the motivation was with the northerners. Donegal did not need to shift into top gear to win the points from the game and sitting on 10 points, have now probably booked a place in the senior semi-finals.
Keith Cunningham eludes the attention of Niall Devlin.

Kildare man, Eamonn Murphy set the tone with a point right from the throw-in. Cian Griffin answered for Cork, but Donegal put 1-7 up before Cork scored again. Kevin Curran was in sharp form for Donegal, the seasoned campaigner put five of the seven Donegal points over the bar, two from frees. Ronan McNeilis and Donal McNulty were on top in the middle of the field as Cork struggled. The rebels did manufacture some decent chances, but they were few and far betweem. The best of them fell to lively Niall Devlin who was put through on goal, but Niall McConnell was equal to the shot and parried it over the bar for a point – Cork’s second and final score of the first half. Eamonn Murphy put a goal away before half time, the Leixlip man slid the ball into the far corner from the edge of the small square. At the half time whistle Cork were 10 points in the hole, 1-9 to 0-2 with little chance of digging themselves out of it.

Cork's Mike Moynihan and Ronan McNeilis Contest a kickout.
The second half was more of the same. Donegal eased off a little through the second 30 minutes. There was not much chance of an upset of the sort from the previous evening when Galway defeated the Wolfe Tones, and Christopher’s came within a whisker of upending Armagh-Notre Dame. Donegal introduced a few subs in the second half, and Cork tried to shift things around to get more change out of the Donegal back line. Kieran Connolly took a more forward position, while Devlin came deeper out the field. Cork fared better on the balance of play, but there was no doubt about who the winner would be. Conrad Bradley and Mike Moynihan get their names on the scorecard in the second half for Cork, but Declan Murphy, Eoin Wade, Eamon Murphy, Ronan Diver, and Kieran Mulvihill got in on the scoring act for Donegal. Not much of a test for Donegal, who may get a better gauge of where they stand when they face the Connemara Gaels in two weeks time.
Cork: K. Reid, M. Carolan, S. Caulfield, D. Kearns, J. Leonard, A. Creagh, Mike Moynihan (0-3), K. Connolly, D. O’Flynn, Conrad Bradley (0-1), K. Moriarty, Niall Devlin (0-3), Cian Griffin (0-1). Donegal: N. McConnell, S. Lee, T. Maguire, P. Witherow, K. Cunningham, Eoin Wade (0-1), D. McNulty, R. McNeilis, Kevin Curran (0-6), Eamonn Murphy (1-4), Ronan Diver (0-1), Declan Murphy (0-2), G.Concar. Sub: Kieran Mulvihill (0-1).

By Rory O'Donnell @ Thar An Trasnan