Cork won a classy replay of the 2010 All Ireland final, beating Down 2-20 to 0-14 in their Round Four qualifier in Croke Park on Saturday.
After beginning without Graham Canty, and despite losing the inspirational Daniel Goulding to an ankle injury midway through the first half, Conor Counihan’s team upped their game and they were emphatic winners by the final whistle.
Dan Gordon was restored to the middle of the field for Down to do battle with Aidan Walsh and Alan O’Connor. Marty Clarke was linking up play well and he put the Mourne men ahead in the early exchanges.
Goulding put Cork ahead with a free, 0-3 to 0-2 and then he played one of the passes of the season to tee up Donncha O’Connor for Cork’s first goal.
It put the champions up by four but James McCartan’s men were not fazed and thanks to Conor McGinn, Benny Coulter, Danny Hughes and Mark Poland, they kept in touch, trailing by two after 25 minutes.
But Cork struck again when some slack marking allowed Paddy Kelly to run at the Down defence and he laid it on for Fintan Gould to slip it past Brendan McVeigh for the game’s second major. Paul Kerrigan and Kieran McKernan traded points to leave the score at the break Cork 2-8 Down 0-9.
Donncha O’Connor grabbed three quick points at the start of the second half and it was slipping away from Down. McCartan brought in Paul McComiskey, Caolan Mooney and Ambrose Rogers but an 18-minute drought between scores sealed their fate.
Paul Kerrigan kicked two stunning points to stretch the Rebel’s lead, and Conor Counihan brought in Canty for the final quarter.
McComiskey scored two points but with 13 minutes to go a second booking saw the end of Marty Clarke’s summer and with him went any chance of a fightback.
Walsh, Canty and John Miskella all added gloss near the end.