All-Ireland semi-final: Galway dominate Cork to reach final

That free also led to a yellow card for Cork full-back Damian Cahalen, who was withdrawn at half-time to be replaced by Cormac O’Brien, leading to Eoin Downey heading to the Giant Rabbit, who raised questions of his own.

Problems would quickly mount in recovery for Cork as after an initial exchange of points, Galway would find another gear.

Applying pressure on Cork’s restart while flooding their defence, they began to dominate and find space to create chances in attack and recovered nine points on the spin to go eight ahead with 50 minutes played.

Cork were in a similar position to last year’s All-Ireland final when the game completely got away from them and they just couldn’t seem to get to the ball, swarmed with Galway’s numbers at the back and had nowhere to go.

Hayes would score their first on 16 minutes and substitute William Buckley added another as the Rebels’ challenge looked to be gaining momentum again.

However, disaster would strike in the 55th minute as Fitzgibbon – cautioned early in the second period – picked up a second yellow for clipping the back of Ronan Glennon’s helmet while attempting to hook.

Given the problems Cork had with Galway’s stacked defence, a numerical disadvantage made their task too big and the gap remained with 10 to play.

Cork needed a goal to spark themselves into life and Barrett was denied by a superb Fahy save and while they mounted a couple of raids, Galway had no way through the Tigers’ defensive position.

Life was draining from Cork as the game wore on and Galway finished in style as, after Cooney became his 14th scorer of the day, the St Thomas man scored in extra time, finishing with a second try to seal a glorious day for the men from the West as they returned to the decider.