That free also resulted in a yellow card for Cork full-back Damian Cahalane, who was withdrawn at half-time to be replaced by Cormac O’Brien, resulting in Eoin Downey moving onto the towering Rabbitte, who had been posing questions of his own.
The problems would quickly mount for Cork upon the resumption as after an early exchange of points, Galway would find another gear.
Putting the squeeze on Cork’s restarts while flooding their defence, they began to dominate and had the space in attack to create opportunities and reeled off nine points on the spin to move 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 onto ball, being hounded and crowed with Galway’s numbers at the back leaving them nowhere to go.
Hayes would land their first score in 16 minutes with substitute William Buckley adding another as the Rebels’ challenge seemed to be gaining momentum once 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 when attempting a hook.
Considering the issues Cork were having with Galway’s stacked defence, a numerical disadvantage made their task much greater and the gap remained six 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 managed a couple of raids, there was no way through Galway’s tigerish defensive stand.
The life was draining from Cork with the game up and Galway finished in style as after Cooney became their 14th scorer of the day, the St Thomas’ man cut through on goal in added time, finishing at the second attempt to seal a glory day for the men from the west as they return to the decider.
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