Despite a decent Cork display, Dublin upped the gears to prevail by 5-18 to 1-17 in a high-scoring Super 8s clash played in glorious sunshine at Croke Park.

The beaten Munster finalists carried the fight to the five-in-a-row-chasing Dubs for over an hour and were just four points adrift with 62 minutes played but three goals in under five minutes from Niall Scully, Ciaran Kilkenny and Brian Fenton put the game well and truly to bed.

The visitors would have been deeply frustrated to turn around trailing by six points, goals from Man of the Match Jack McCaffrey and Michael Darragh MacAuley the difference between the sides at the short whistle – 2-9 to 0-9. Cork showed no fear of their illustrious opponents but MacAuley’s slam-dunk major deep into injury time at the end of an entertaining opening period came as a sickening blow.

With only 30,214 looking on at GAA HQ, the losers made a dream start to lead by four unanswered points inside six minutes. Unchallenged, Kevin O’Driscoll stormed forward to open the scoring before Sean White, Paul Kerrigan and Ruairi Deane followed up with further away scores. In between, referee David Gough changed his mind after erroneously awarding Dublin a penalty when Con O’Callaghan went down, the Meath whistler effecting a rethink after consulting an umpire.

Kerrigan cancelled out O’Callaghan’s point before, in the eleventh minute, McCaffrey netted at the Hill 16 end. The raiding wing back initially went over under pressure but caught the Rebels defence snoozing when he quickly sprang back up and fired a bouncing right-footed shot into the bottom left corner from close range.

Kilkenny cancelled out Luke Connolly’s point and Cormac Costello flashed over the leveller off his left boot in the 16th minute after the All-Ireland champions worked a quick free. Fenton ghosted through and landed a classy point to propel the Dubs ahead for the first time in the 18th minute (a lead they would never relinquish) and Mark Collins pulled back a pointed free after Philly McMahon snuck forward to sell a dummy and bag a great point off his left boot.

The Leesiders refused to roll over and Kerrigan slotted his third superb score seconds after O’Callaghan smashed a goal effort over the bar, the on-song Stephen Cluxton denying Brian Hurley a Cork goal after Kilkenny nonchalantly thumped over his second.

On the 30-minute mark, O’Callaghan was in again as another hole appeared in the Cork defence and this time he was content to take his point. It was Hurley’s turn to sell a lovely pre-point dummy, his strike at the Davin End a thing of beauty. Paul Mannion’s trademark point seemed to have closed the first-half scoring but, in the 38th minute, MacAuley rose like a salmon to double-palm a Costello centre powerfully past Mark White to the bottom corner of the net beneath a celebrating Hill 16.

Connolly hit the first point of the second half via the inside of the left upright and then stroked over a ‘45’ after O’Callaghan had replied via White’s fingertips. The Rebels got right back into it when Connolly planted a 46th-minute penalty past Cluxton’s despairing dive to the top left corner of the net, Cian O’Sullivan booked for taking Ian Maguire down. But the unperturbed winners hit back with points from John Small and McMahon either side of a brilliant Cork score from the raiding Liam O’Donovan.

Substitute Dean Rock, who scored five from five, pointed a free and then a ‘45’ after White denied Small, Taylor and Hurley replying as the impressive Rebels remained very much in contention with 14 minutes left – 2-14 to 1-14. Rock boomed a free over from his hands and Scully duly lashed the third Dublin goal to the roof of the net eight minutes from the end, Hurley and Mannion trading quickfire points thereafter.

Kilkenny tucked the fourth three-pointer into the bottom right corner in the 66th minute after a loose White restart and Fenton gathered McCaffrey’s pass to thump the fifth to the roof of the net less than 60 seconds later. Hurley and Rock exchanged frees and substitute Michael Hurley knocked over a consolation for the Rebel County, who will be back at Croker next Saturday to take on Tyrone in a must-win match.

Next up for the Leinster champions (whose account tonight was closed in style by Rock with a stunning free from the hands from the wrong side), on the same bill, is a home / neutral venue clash with Roscommon.

Dublin - S Cluxton; D Byrne, M Fitzsimons, P McMahon (0-2); J McCaffrey (1-0), C O'Sullivan, J Small (0-1); B Fenton (1-1), M D Macauley (1-0); N Scully (1-0), C Costello (0-1), B Howard; C Kilkenny (1-2), P Mannion (0-2), C O’Callaghan (0-4). Subs: D Rock (0-5, 3f, 1'45) for C Costello, P Small for C O’Callaghan, J Cooper for C O’Sullivan, K McManamon for P Mannion, E Murchan for J McCaffrey, J McCarthy for B Fenton.

Cork - M White; J Loughrey, Thomas Clancy, K Flahive; L O’Donovan (0-1), Tomas Clancy, M Taylor (0-1); I Maguire, K O’Driscoll (0-1); S White (0-1), R Deane (0-1), P Kerrigan (0-3); M Collins (0-1f), B Hurley (0-3, 2f), L Connolly (1-3, 1-0pen, 0-1'45). Subs: M Hurley (0-2) for P Kerrigan, K O’Donovan for J Loughrey, R O’Toole for S White, S Sherlock for L Connolly, C Kiely for L O’Donovan, J O’Rourke for I Maguire.

Referee - D Gough.

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