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Classy Corofin cruise home
Date Published: {J}
Corofin 0-16
Tuam Stars 1-6
FRANK FARRAGHER AT TUAM STADIUM
SOMEWHERE, along the way of their late Summer travails, Corofin have discovered the great elixir that transported them from a place of vulnerability to a land of plenty and, last Sunday, Tuam Stars were the latest victims of this transformation.
Corofin did have their moments of second-half worry in a sparkling senior county final at Tuam Stadium, but their first half display of power football was probably the best they have produced since the renaissance of the club’s fortunes back in the early 1990s.
By the time Gerry Daly sounded the interval whistle, Corofin had sprinted into a 0-11 to 0-2 lead, and even allowing for the fact that they had played with the aid of the first-half wind into the town goal, there just seemed to be no way back for the Stars.
It is to Tuam’s eternal credit that they fought their way back into contention and with 11 minutes to go, could have reduced the deficit to just two points, had Shane Gaffney’s penalty not been superbly clawed away to safety by Corofin ‘keeper David Morris.
Alas, that was to be the last hurrah for the Stars, as Corofin called on all their wiles and experience to shut out the Tuam attack, while along the way delivering the final two scores of the match via the deadly boot of Alan O’Donovan.
It was a day of personal triumph for O’Donovan kicking a total of 10 points, made up of six frees, one ‘45’ and three precision efforts from play, to mark one of the great individual forward displays of county finals in Galway.
The Corofin sharpshooter would, however, be the first to admit that while he did deliver the key scores, this was a victory etched out of teamwork, unselfishness and a willingness to go that last mile by every members of a side imbued with a commendable work ethic.
Tuam won the toss and in a tactical move obviously agreed beforehand, captain Tony Costello opted to play into the wind, in the hope of restricting Corofin to a modest half-time lead and then delivering their own big second half charge.
It was a gamble that did not pay off. Corofin went through the first-half, imperious in defence, absolutely dominant in midfield and razor sharp in attack where the points rained in from all distances and angles.
It was tough going on Tuam and their followers during that first-half, but it has to be acknowledged that during this 30 minutes of play, Corofin gave an exhibition of all that’s good in Gaelic football.
Their first touch was unerring, everything was done at breathtaking pace, support players always seemed to be available in twos and threes, and all of those qualities were laced with a confidence that has sprouted vigorously since their replay success over Claregalway.
The ratio of first-half attacks broke down in favour of Corofin by at least five to one, with Tuam only managing to play a very small percentage of first-half game time in their opponents’ half of the field.
All of the first half action was into the town goal . . . it was a blitzkrieg attack and Tuam’s Dunkirk defences were unable to cope.
Such was the scale of Corofin’s dominance that Tuam’s main hope of survival lay in a high proportion of chances being spurned, but the opposite was the case.
Corofin might have had seven first half wides but they kicked 11 precision points, five of them from the boot of O’Donovan, while Damien Burke (2), Alan Burke, Kieran Comer, Justin Burke and Gary Delaney also hit the target.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
People’s living conditions less than 100 years ago were frightening. We have come a long way. We talk about water charges today, but back then the local District Councils were erecting pumps for local communities and the lovely town of Mountbellew, according to Council minutes, had open sewers,” says Galway County Council archivist Patria McWalter.
Patria believes we “need to take pride in our history, and we should take the same pride in our historical records as we do in our built heritage”. When you see the wealth of material in her care, this belief makes sense.
She is in charge of caring for the rich collection of administrative records owned by Galway County Council and says “these records are as much part of our history as the Rock of Cashel is. They document our lives and our ancestors’ lives. And nobody can plan for the future unless you learn from the past, what worked and what didn’t”.
Archivists and librarians are often unfairly regarded as being dry, academic types, but that’s certainly not true of Patria. Her enthusiasm is infectious as she turns the pages of several minute books from Galway’s Rural District Councils, all of them at least 100 years old.
Part of her role involved cataloguing all the records of the Councils – Ballinasloe, Clifden, Galway, Gort, Loughrea, Mountbellew, Portumna and Tuam. These records mostly consisted of minutes of various meetings.
When she was cataloguing them she realised their worth to local historians and researchers, so she decided to compile a guide to their content. The result is For the Record: The Archives of Galway’s Rural District Councils, which will be a valuable asset to anybody with an interest in history.
Many representatives on these Councils were local personalities and several were arrested during the political upheaval of the era, she explains.
And, ushering in a new era in history, women were allowed to sit on these Rural District Councils – at the time they were not allowed to sit on County Councils.
All of this information is included in Patria’s introductory essay to the attractively produced A4 size guide, which gives a glimpse into how these Rural Councils operated and the way political thinking changed in Ireland during a short 26-year period. In the early 1900s, these Councils supported Home Rule, but by 1920, they were calling for full independence and refusing to recognise the British administration.
“I love the tone,” says Patria of the minutes from meetings. “The language was very emotive.”
That was certainly true of the Gort Rural District Council. At a meeting in 1907, following riots in Dublin at the premiere of JM Synge’s play, The Playboy of the Western World the councillors’ response was vehement. They recorded their decision to “protest most emphatically against the libellous comedy, The Playboy of the Western World, that was belched forth during the past week in the Abbey Theatre, Dublin, under the fostering care of Lady Gregory and Mr Yeats. We congratulate the good people of Dublin in howling down the gross buffoonery and immoral suggestions that are scattered throughout this scandalous performance.
For more from the archives see this week’s Tribunes here
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
SLIGO 0-9
GALWAY 1-4
FRANK FARRAGHER IN ENNISCRONE
GALWAY’S first serious examination of the 2013 season rather disturbingly ended with a rating well below the 40% pass mark at the idyllic, if rather Siberian, seaside setting of Enniscrone on Sunday last.
The defeat cost Galway a place in the FBD League Final against Leitrim and also put a fair dent on their confidence shield for the bigger tests that lie ahead in February.
There was no fluke element in this success by an understrength Sligo side and by the time Leitrim referee, Frank Flynn, sounded the final whistle, there wasn’t a perished soul in the crowd of about 500 who could question the justice of the outcome.
It is only pre-season and last Sunday’s blast of dry polar winds did remind everyone that this is far from summer football, but make no mistake about it, the match did lay down some very worrying markers for Galway following a couple of victories over below par third level college teams.
Galway did start the game quite positively, leading by four points at the end of a first quarter when they missed as much more, but when Sligo stepped up the tempo of the game in the 10 minutes before half-time, the maroon resistance crumbled with frightening rapidity.
Some of the statistics of the match make for grim perusal. Over the course of the hour, Galway only scored two points from play and they went through a 52 minute period of the match, without raising a white flag – admittedly a late rally did bring them close to a draw but that would have been very rough justice on Sligo.
Sligo were backable at 9/4 coming into this match, the odds being stretched with the ‘missing list’ on Kevin Walsh’s team sheet – Adrian Marren, Stephen Coen, Tony Taylor, Ross Donovan, David Kelly, David Maye, Johnny Davey and Eamon O’Hara, were all marked absent for a variety of reasons.
Walsh has his Sligo side well schooled in the high intensity, close quarters type of football, and the harder Galway tried to go through the short game channels, the more the home side bottled them up.
Galway badly needed to find some variety in their attacking strategy and maybe there is a lot to be said for the traditional Meath style of giving long, quick ball to a full forward line with a big target man on the edge of the square – given Paul Conroy’s prowess close to goal last season, maybe it is time to ‘settle’ on a few basics.
Defensively, Galway were reasonably solid with Gary Sice at centre back probably their best player – he was one of the few men in maroon to deliver decent long ball deep into the attacking zone – while Finian Hanley, Conor Costello and Gary O’Donnell also kept things tight.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.
Date Published: 23-Jan-2013
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