Liberated Corofin show little mercy to hapless Clann men

Corofin 4-22

Clann Na nGael 0-7

MAYBE Mountbellew/ Moylough had the right idea after all . . . for this is what can happen when a team engages the All-Ireland Club football champions in open combat and opts for an orthodox tactical approach.

Sunday’s Connacht Club semi-final at Dr Hyde Park wasn’t a match; it was a massacre. A superbly honed Corofin outfit trouncing the best Roscommon had to offer by a whopping 27-points.

It almost beggars belief – at least in the context of this mauling of a shell-shocked Clann na nGael – that Corofin almost came a cropper in the recent drawn Galway final against Mountbellew/Moylough

That forgettable defensive orientated struggle, and more of the same in the replay, was like chalk and cheese to this open and fluid exhibition of football as Corofin left their opponents chasing shadows from the off.

And how the six-in-a-row Galway champions thrived in such an environment. Their support play, angles of running, intensity and sheer class quickly turned this provincial semi-final into a turkey shoot.

Frankly, Clann nan Gael didn’t know what hit them. Admittedly losing key players Ultan Harney and Donal Shine close to the break did them no favours, but the outclassed Roscommon men were already haemorrhaging badly.

In a sign of the team’s growing frustration at hardly being able to lay a glove on Corofin, Shine was black-carded for dissent, while Harney got his marching orders for a retaliatory stamp on the excellent Dylan Wall, who was eventually forced to hobble off injured.

Despite having first use of the wind, Clann nan Gael failed to raise a solitary flag from play until midfielder Cathal Shine from the target in the 33rd minute. It was all one-way traffic as Corofin began at a blistering pace in reviving memories of their dismantling of Nemo Rangers at Croke Park last March.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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