Corofin footballers are the victims of raw deal

IT was a bad day for the GAA in Kiltoom last Sunday. A shocking refereeing performance led directly to unsavoury scenes after the Connacht club senior football final as some of the Corofin players and team’s supporters verbally took their frustration and sense of injustice out on Mayo official Liam Devenney. In the circumstances, it was hard to blame them.

To put it mildly, the Galway champions had got a raw deal. Apart from the disallowing of what appeared a perfectly legitimate opening-half goal from Michael Farragher, they were the victims of several inexplicable frees being awarded against them on a day Devenney also stirred controversy by flashing yellow cards – a staggering 14 in all – left, right and centre. He also unwittingly got in the way of a promising second-half Corofin attack.

Frankly, several of the incidents which led to bookings hardly merited a free never mind the players in question entering the referee’s notebook and it all conspired to tarnish Connacht club football’s biggest occasion of the year. Sure, St. Brigid’s also suffered from a couple of baffling refereeing decisions themselves, but the big losers were Corofin who were undoubtedly the better footballing team and were in a strong position at the interval when ahead 0-7 to 0-4.

The fact that the match was played in St. Brigid’s back yard ought to come under scrutiny too. We had assumed that matches of this prestige were only staged at designated county grounds, but Sunday’s final going ahead in Kiltoom represented a massive advantage for Senan Kilbride and company. Granted, St. Brigid’s had to travel to Tuam to take on Killererin last year, but at least that venue is a high profile inter-county stadium. It begs the question why the Connacht Council didn’t fix the 2011 final for Hyde Park?

For all that, Corofin should still have regained the Connacht title. Against opponents who failed to score from play in the first-half, they produced nearly all the quality football and engineered some slickly created points from Farragher, Kieran Comer, Justin Burke and Michael Lundy. St. Brigid’s best moment of the half came when Kilbride opened their scoring from a free after a storming run upfield by centre back Peter Domican.

The opening ten minutes of the second-half was dour stuff, but Corofin spurned a great chance to stretch their lead when substitute Ronan Steede failed to take a simple point scoring opportunity and, instead, ran into opposition defensive traffic in the 37th minute. It was a key moment, especially as the title holders suddenly found some momentum in kicking five unanswered five points, including their first efforts from play via Cathal McHugh and Kilbride.

The initiative was with the Roscommon men, but to Corofin’s credit they managed to get back on terms with two points from Alan O’Donovan. However, they were the victims of a terrible call when St. Brigid’s were awarded a close range free for literally nothing, especially as Gary Sice looked to have been fouled moments earlier. Dolan made no mistake and when the former county player sent over a rousing point from play after David Morris had advanced bravely to thwart Enda Sheedy, the game was slipping away from the Galway champions.

Despite no shortage of effort in the closing minutes, all they could manage was a Donovan free as Brigid’s held on for a scarcely deserved victory. Sunday’s lost was a sickening blow for a Corofin team which must be shattered by the nature of this defeat. They produced the more fluent football and their link-up play at times had the title holders under serious pressure, but they never killed off their dogged opponents off. That maybe will haunt them most of all.

For more, read this week's Connacht Tribune.