Clinical Cork dismantle Offaly

Cork would have travelled to Birr under no illusions that a comfortable win awaited for them but they were still fully focused on sending out a serious message of intent as they defeated Offaly every bit as impressively as the final scoreline suggests.

The Munster men were exellent as they followed up a big win over Clare with another very convincing performance. They ran Offaly ragged at times and were absolutely unstoppable in the opening quarter.

They hit a shellshocked Offaly with everything they had from the throw in and the game was over as a contest after just eleven minutes.

At that stage, Cork were 3-05 to 0-02 ahead and the only issue at stake was their winning margin.

Playing against the wind, Offaly had set up defensively with the aim of holding Cork at bay for as long as they could in the first half.

Instead those plans were out the window within two minutes as Cork had 2-01 on the board. The first goal was a disaster for Offaly as a misplaced Conor Clancy puckout ended with the brilliant Shane Kingston riffling home a goal. Offaly barely had time to catch their breath when Darragh Fitzgibbon tore through for a brilliant second goal thirty seconds later.

The third came from Conor Lehane in the 11th minute after Clancy had saved smartly from Mark Keane.

Cork looked like getting a goal every time they broke forward and their ability to burst past Offaly tackles created loads of opportunities.

The only surprise was that Cork had to wait until the 63rd minute before their fourth goal arrived, a super individual score from Kingston that put them 4-22 to 0-14 ahead.

They did have opportunities – a Robbie O'Flynn goal had been ruled out for taking too many steps in the third minute while Conor Cahalane and sub Jack O'Connor