Connolly's heroics fail to save St. James' minors from defeat

Date Published: {J}

Corofin 0-10St James’ 0-9

Dara Bradley

COROFIN won their second minor A football title in three years when dethroning city club St James’ in a tame county final at Pearse Stadium on Sunday.

The north board champions, on balance, probably deserved the one-point victory given their marginally superior point-scoring ability, but Ollie Burke’s charges were pushed all the way and had to sweat it out in the last few minutes as the Mervue/Renmore outfit pressed for a late equaliser, which failed to materialise.

Beforehand it was hard to believe that the two best teams in Galway battling for the crown each contained just one player who was in the county squad which lost to Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final this summer.

But as the match progressed, it was less so – only St James’ midfielder Aaron Connolly stood out as outstanding in a match that was crying out for leadership.

The likes of Corofin’s Daithí Burke battled hard at centre-field and nifty forwards Seán Silke and Eoin Glynn had their moments, but the fact that the judges couldn’t pick a man-of-the-match from the winning side tells its own story.

And while it is easy to look back with rose tinted glasses and get misty-eyed about teams of old – particularly those Corofin sides of the 1990s that won eight minor county titles in a row – the standard of underage football at this level in Galway seems to have dropped, judging by this display.

No, this was not the Corofin of old but in fairness that probably makes victory a better achievement – manager Burke and his backroom men have moulded a team of limited ability that eked out a deserved victory. You can’t argue with that.

For more, read this week's Connacht Sentinel.