Cork 3-22

Waterford 0-7

By ANDREW HORGAN

Cork secured an impressive win in their opening game of the TG4 Munster SFC as they defeated Waterford 3-22 to 0-7 in their round two clash played at CIT on Sunday evening.

A win against Kerry next weekend will ensure the reigning Munster champions will again progress to the final where they will again meet Waterford in a couple of weeks.

Cork started the game brightly and they stormed into the lead after just three minutes as Daire Kiely grabbed an early goal.

Maire O’Callaghan’s clever hand pass inside sent Kiely through one on one with the keeper and she made no mistake, coolly slotting the ball into the far bottom right corner.

And just a couple of moments later, Cork doubled their lead as they raised another green flag following a superb attacking move.

Neat play in the build-up involving Orla Finn and Ciara O’Sullivan created the opportunity for Marie O’Callaghan and the midfielder drilled her shot past the keeper from close range.

O’Sullivan scored her side’s first point of the match in the sixth minute before four quick scores — three of them frees — by Orla Finn saw the home side lead by 2-5 to no score midway through the first half.

The two sides soon started to swap scores with Maria Delahunty (2) and Eimear Farrell firing over for the Deise in between scores from Coppinger, Finn and O’Sullivan for Cork.

Cork, who landed their 12th Lidl National League Division One title recently, finished the first period of play strongly as O’Sullivan added another couple of points to her tally either side of Finn striking over the bar to give them a 2-11 to 0-3 lead at the half time break.

There was no let-up from Ephie Fitzgerald’s side in the second half as they continued to charge forward from the restart.

They notched five unanswered points before Niamh Cotter calmly slotted home their third goal of the evening to make it 3-16 to 0-3.

Cork went on to add three more points before Waterford rallied in the closing stages of the game.

They outscored their Munster rivals by four points to three in that time, with Maria Delahunty claiming two of those but it was of little consequence as Cork finished with a 24 point winning margin.

Scorers for Cork: O Finn 0-11 (0-4 frees), C O’Sullivan 0-5, N Cotter, D Kelly, M O’Callaghan 1-0 each, O Farmer 0-3, L Coppinger, S Noonan and E Scally 0-1 each.

Scorers for Waterford: M Delahunty 0-4 (0-3 frees), M Ryan, L Devine, E Farrell 0-1 each.

CORK: M O’Brien; C O’Shea, E Meaney, M Duggan; S Kelly, A Hutchings, E Kiely; O Farmer, M O’Callaghan; C O’Sullivan, N Cotter, D Kiely; S O’Leary, L Coppinger, O Finn.

Subs: S Noonan for L Coppinger (ht), E Spillane for S O’Leary (37), R Ni Bhuachalla for D Kiely (41), L Crowley for M O’Brien (46), M Cahalane for M Duggan (46).

WATERFORD: R Landers; A Mullaney, C McGrath, R Casey; C Murphy, K McGrath, R Tobin; E Murray, K Murray; S Dunphy; C Fennell, M Delahunty; E Farrell, M Ryan, A Wall.

Subs: C Murray for A Mullaney (39), L Devine for S Dunphy (42), E Gildea for R Casey (56), K Hayes for C Murphy (56)

Referee: Eamonn Moran (Kerry).

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