Cork won the toss at Celtic Park and opted to play with a stiff breeze during the first half as two monster two-pointers from Steven Sherlock had the visitors 0-8 to 0-5 ahead on 21 minutes.
The Oak Leafers took full control of the Cork kick-out, winning eight of the last 10 before the break to go in leading 1-10 to 0-9.
A run of 1-3 without reply, including a goal from the returning Lachlan Murray with a super assist from Conor Glass, have Derry a platform at the break.
“In terms of going into that place at half-time and then to have the breeze at your back in the second half, the whole thing was to get the first 10 minutes of the half right then. We went for the juggler 10 minutes into the half and I think the game then was effectively over.” Meenagh added.
Overall Derry won 19 of the 35 Cork restarts, 10 unanswered scores in the 10-minute burst after the half ended the game as a contest.
In the modern game and under the new rules, kick-outs are huge and in Conor Glass and Brendan Rogers, Derry have arguably the best midfield pairing in the country.
Ethan Doherty, Padraig McGrogan, Paul Cassidy and Conor Doherty are all masters at scooping up the breaks.
“It was a situation where we had to get man-to-man on their kick-outs, and then the further we got from them to be a bit more zonal, he’s (Michael Aodh Martin) not as strong to his right-hand side.
“We had all that work done, but we were very frustrated with the players early on in terms of their attitude to how they closed him down.
“So, we got that message on to the field, we got that rectified, and I think we won eight of their last ten kick-outs at the end of the first half. That gave us the platform then to build ourselves into the game.”
