Winning ugly won’t upset Corofin after the beauty of last two finals

Inside Track with John McIntyre

It’s hard to make history. And in an ironic way Corofin’s fraught experience at Croke Park last Sunday makes their achievement of a record-breaking third All-Ireland club football triumph on the trot all the more extraordinary.

After their swashbuckling dismantling of Nemo Rangers and Dr Crokes in the previous two finals, the Galway champions had to get down and dirty in eventually fending off Kilcoo’s defensive-orientated challenge in an often times grim showdown.

Corofin are not used to having to win ugly at GAA headquarters, but they had no choice on Sunday, confronted by a maze of Down bodies behind the ball. With their normal attacking lines suffocated, Kevin O’Brien’s charges looked ill at ease and took 24 minutes to register their first score.

Still, a mini-scoring purple patch early in the third quarter against now 14-man rivals saw Corofin establish a 0-6 to 0-4 lead. We expected them to power on from there, but the prospect of making history clearly spooked them down the home stretch.

It’s unheard of for numerically disadvantaged opponents to retrieve a three-point deficit – a Jason Leonard free had put the title holders 0-7 to 0-4 ahead in the 48th minute – against Corofin, but that’s exactly what happened. The All-Ireland champions sat back, became a little cynical and invited trouble. And they got it.

Kilcoo might have only equalised in the tenth minute of protracted injury time, but they were the ones who now possessed the greater ambition in the closing stages, with only a series of bad wides preventing them from pulling off an improbable victory.

They should have been the ones carrying serious momentum into extra time, but instead Corofin went on to underline their greatness and resolve. Resetting for the 20 additional minutes, the carelessness and safety-first approach which had characterised their finish to normal time was gone. Corofin knew they had sort of got off the hook. Digging deep into their squad due to injuries, a red card (Michael Farragher) and black card (Darragh Silke), they were a transformed squad in extra time; more like their old selves.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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