Galway football title race becomes a one horse town

Inside Track with John McIntyre

Corofin’s modern-day stranglehold on Galway club football is tighter than ever after they demolished a spirited if outclassed St. Michael’s outfit at Tuam Stadium last Sunday. It proved a no contest as the champions romped to an 18-point triumph in capturing the Frank Fox Cup for the sixteenth time.

The bookmakers had rated Corofin as virtually unbackable 1/12 favourites to carry the day and Stephen Rochford’s charges justified those heavily restrictive odds in the style of a team which has become untouchable in the local areana. Winning their semi-final by a whopping 24 points, followed by Sunday’s rout, underlines just how far they are ahead of the posse in Galway.

Transferring that dominance to, at least, the provincial scene will now be Corofin’s next target. The Connacht club championship hasn’t been the happiest hunting ground for them in recent years, but even with St. Brigid’s and Ballintubber, two teams of considerable ability and experience, also chasing Western glory, the Galway title holders still look the best equipped to reach the All-Ireland semi-finals in the spring.

This was a tough day for a St. Michael’s team which barely had time to absorb their notable achievement of reaching the county final for the first time ever after their replay victory over Barna the previous weekend. They couldn’t cope with Corofin’s terrific support play and off-the-ball running even if the six-goal margin of defeat was a harsh reflection on their overall efforts. The absence of spiritual leader, the injured Alan Glynn, was an untimely blow, but the champions weren’t at full strength either.

If you were told beforehand that St. Michael’s would land the opening point of the match; outscore Corofin by three points to two approaching the interval; and raise the first three flags of the second half, you’d be excused for thinking that John Kenny’s troops mightn’t have been too far away at the finish. Instead, however, they were blitzed as Corofin’s pacey forwards ran riot.

In fact, they had the chances to register seven goals and though it might be curious to suggest that Corofin need to become more ruthless in front of the opposition posts, they can’t afford to leave routine scores behind them when stepping up in class. For all that, the Galway football championship is now a one horse town and it’s not difficult to imagine this Corofin team going on to pull off the five-in-a-row in the years ahead.

Though the battling Eddie Hoare kicked St. Michael’s intro an early lead, the final was basically over a little more than midway through the first half as Corofin romped into a commanding 2-7 to 0-1 advantage – the goals coming from the fleet-footed Michael Lundy and team captain Michael Farragher who was subsequently forced to retire injured. The city men did compete better from there to half-time with neat points from Keith Ward, Neil Grogan and Hoare, but the damage was already done.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.