Three-in-a-row men Corofin still in league of their own

Inside Track with John McIntyre

IT wasn’t the walk the in the park that they enjoyed in last year’s county final against St. Michael’s and they haven’t cut a swath through the championship like they did in 2015, but Corofin still remain in a league of their own in Galway club football.

In completing an historic three-in-a-row and capturing the Frank Fox Cup for a remarkable 14th time since 1991 at the weekend, the All-Ireland champions’ ongoing dominance of the local scene is a tribute to both the talent nurtured in the club and their dedication during that time.

Under manager Stephen Rochford, they have taken their levels of preparation to new levels of professionalism and though Corofin almost came a cropper in the county quarter-final against Tuam Stars, they subsequently changed through the gears in maintaining their mastery of the Galway championship.

Last Sunday in Tuam Stadium, they had to endure a determined challenge from a youthful Mountbellew/Moylough outfit for over 40 minutes, but hopes of an exciting finale were soon dashed as Corofin stepped up the tempo in outscoring their opponents by 1-7 to 0-2 from there to the finish. There is no arguing with a ten point winning margin and the Galway title holders just had too much of everything in the end.

The introduction of former under-age player Ian Burke played a pivotal role in Corofin’s final quarter dominance as he scored 1-3 to help finally kill off a brave Mountbellew/Moylough side which had spurned a couple of decent opening-half goal chances. Burke’s big contribution begs the question why he wasn’t started in the first place, but he made a big statement at the spiritual home of Galway football.

Though Corofin had bagged the opening scores of the final from the impressive Ronan Steede, straight from the throw in, and Jason Leonard (free), the hard-working Cathal Kenny soon had Mountbellew/Moylough on level terms and when goalkeeper Brian Donnellan expertly drove over a lone-range free, James Foran’s charges were giving as good as they got and were level on the scoreboard after 12 minutes.

Mountbellew/Moylough then spurned a great opportunity to really rattle the champions, but Eoin Finnerty’s close range effort was excellently stopped by Corofin goalkeeper Thomas Healy, who was atoning for a mis-directed kick-out, while Barry McHugh also could have found the net in the 19th minute only to direct his shot just over the crossbar.

The teams were still deadlocked, but Corofin who had a couple of ‘goals’ from Gary Sice disallowed, then delivered a telling blow when the county player’s quick free put Steede in the clear and with the Mountbellew/Moylough defence backing off, the rangy midfielder kept surging forward until expertly driving past Donnellan. Within two minutes, Corofin were raising another green flag with the impressive Martin Farragher first-timing to the net. Suddenly, they were five points clear and, realistically, they were never going to be caught after that.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.