Cork eased to a 3-17 to 0-8 victory over Limerick at the Gaelic Grounds tonight.

A surprise result never looked like materialising in this very one-sided encounter as the Rebels progressed to a June 16th semi-final meeting with Clare at Ennis, while the home side tumbled listlessly into the Qualifiers.

Conor Counihan's men didn't make their early possession count but finally found their scoring boots in the second quarter and delivered a devastating burst of three goals inside seven minutes via Brian Hurley, John O'Rourke and Pearse O'Neill to lead by 3-4 to 0-3 at the interval.

The Rebels dominated the opening ten minutes but a combination of poor shooting from the visitors and heroic defending from the hosts meant that it was one point apiece as we reached the ten-minute mark.

Former Cork hurler Damien Cahalane opened the scoring from a '45' in the third minute before full back Johnny McCarthy and debutant goalkeeper Donal O'Sullivan made vital interceptions to keep the rampant Leesiders at bay.

There were also Cork wides from Cahalane and Ciaran Sheehan, while Stephen Lavin missed the target for the Shannonsiders before Seanie Buckley tied the scores up with a stunning point from the most unforgiving of angles.

Cahalane and Ger Collins traded points but it was soon double scores as Daniel Goulding grabbed a brace - one from play and one from a routine free - to make it 0-4 to 0-2 in the 20th minute.

Maurice Horan's men were hanging in there but the dynamic of the match changed completely when Cork full forward Hurley marked his SFC debut with a game-changing goal: a Goulding shot dropped short and Hurley was on hand to flick the ball to the back of the net and put daylight between the teams for the first time, 1-4 to 0-2.

That three-pointer seemed to open the floodgates and the gulf between Divisions One and Four was all too evident as the Rebels added further majors from John O'Rourke and Pearse O'Neill to lead by 3-4 to 0-3 after 31 minutes.

In between those second and third Cork goals, Limerick had floated over their third point - an Eoin O'Connor free - but they were clearly in big, big trouble with the break approaching.

There were ten points between them at the short whistle, with the winners - who had drafted James Loughrey and Alan O'Connor into their starting XV at the expense of Eoin Cadogan and Aidan Walsh - running their lower-league counterparts ragged at times and the on-song Goulding at the heart of most of their good work.

It was clear as the sides went in for their half-time team talks that there was no way back for the Treaty County: Cork were deploying an ultra-defensive system with most of their players operating deep, behind the ball, affording their opponents no space in which to engineer scores - or even scoring opportunities…

With the match clearly over as a contest, it took a full seven minutes before the first score of the second half materialised and it was Goulding - who had earlier hit the woodwork - who stepped up to clip over his third point of the evening.

Limerick manager Horan had made a triple substitution during the break - with Michael Sheehan, Derry O'Connor and Seamus O'Carroll replacing Ian Corbett, Thomas Lee and Bobby O'Brien - and they managed a 44th-minute point from O'Connor.

But Cork replied rather emphatically with a run of quickfire scores from Paul Kerrigan, Hurley, Goulding and Sheehan to lead by 15 points - 3-10 to 0-4 - after 50 minutes.

Substitute Stephen Lucey and Kerrigan - with his final contribution before being called ashore - swapped scores before the losers put a trace of respectability on the scoreboard with points from Michael Sheehan, midfield dynamo John Galvin and O'Connor.

Substitute Mark Collins responded for the runaway leaders and they finished strongly with a flurry of scores from sub Donncha O'Connor, O'Rourke and another substitute, Fintan Goold (2), to win with a staggering 18 points to spare.

Cork: K O'Halloran; P Kissane, M Shields, D Cahalane (0-2); J Loughrey, G Canty, T Clancy; A O'Connor, P O'Neill (1-0); C Sheehan (0-1), P Kelly, J O'Rourke (1-1); D Goulding (0-5), B Hurley (1-1), P Kerrigan (0-2). Subs: F Goold (0-2) for Kelly, N O'Leary for Canty, D O'Connor for Sheehan, A O'Sullivan, M Collins (0-3) for Kerrigan.

Limerick: D O'Sullivan; A Lane, J McCarthy, M O'Riordan; S Lavin, P Ranahan, P Browne; B O'Brien, J Galvin (0-1); J Riordan, T Lee, S Buckley (0-1); G Collins (0-1), I Corbett, E O'Connor (0-3). Subs: M Sheehan (0-1) for Corbett, D O'Connor for O'Brien, S O'Carroll for Corbett, S Lucey (0-1) for Buckley, L O'Dwyer for O'Riordan. Tweet

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