Cork have booked their place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals in dramatic fashion, defeating Roscommon on a scoreline of 1-14 to 0-16 at Páirc Uí Chaoimh this afternoon.
In a thrilling end to the game, some will feel that the controversial approach from the Connacht county came back to bite them.
Roscommon were well on top for the vast majority of the first half, especially in terms of possession. They were patient on the ball, being happy enough to pass it around in the middle third and wait for their opportunity to pounce.
While this did result in some excellent scores, it did not translate to the dominance on the scoreboard that they would have hoped for. They held a decent lead at one point in the opening half, although Cork would string together a few scores to ensure that there was only a point between the sides at the interval.
In the second half, Cork certainly played with far more adventure in the second half, something they were rewarded for. They put a good run together to get themselves in front, capped off by a goal from Conor Corbett.
Roscommon responded well, putting together a scoring run of their own to ensure that the sides were level in the closing stages.
The game's decisive moment came in additional time.
With the scores level in injury time, Roscommon reverted to type by attempting to hold the ball for the final shot despite there being around three minutes remaining in the game.
They passed the ball around unchallenged, although this would eventually cost them.
Despite being in quite a bit of space, Conor Daly would conceded a cheap free by throwing the ball in the air and then gathering it himself. From the resulting free, Cork would go straight up the other end and score a point via Kevin O'Donovan to take the lead.
Roscommon made to pay for their possession based approach today.
They attempted to hold the ball for the final shot against Cork, only to give away a cheap free and the winning score up the other end. pic.twitter.com/PyxgTxZHIj— Gary Connaughton (@gconnaughton15) June 24, 2023
This proved to be the winning of the game, with Roscommon unable to find a levelling score before the final whistle.
Davy Burke's side have had an excellent year up to this point, although they have also faced some criticism for their tactical approach on occasion. The most notable incident came in their draw with Dublin, where the Rossies held the ball for six minutes uninterrupted.
It was a controversial moment in the season, with the likes of Peter Canavan calling on the GAA to change the rules so we would not see a repeat of it moving forward.
Roscommon attempted to repeat that trick on this occasion, although it came back to bite them.
As for Cork, they will be thrilled to reach the last eight on the back of some major improvements in recent months. They will likely go into their next game as underdogs once again, although they have shown that they have no issue performing under that tag.
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