Clinical Corofin thrive on dry sod and big pitch in routing Rangers
Inside Track with John McIntyre
THE widespread theory that Corofin weren’t quite the force of old was blown out of the water when they thrashed competition aristocrats Nemo Rangers in a one-sided All-Ireland club football final at Croke Park last Saturday. They just didn’t beat the Cork champions, they wiped them off the field in romping to a scarcely believable 15-point triumph.
Of course, it almost defies logic to suggest a team which last winter won a fifth consecutive county title and also retained their provincial crown might be on the decline, but there was a sound basis to that line of thought as Corofin were taken to the edge by Annghdown in the Galway semi-final and had to rely on extra time to finally fend off the challenges of both St Brigid’s and Castlebar Mitchels in Connacht.
They also had to dig deep in coming through a searching All-Ireland semi-final examination against Moorefield of Kildare, but there was extenuating circumstances for those troubles in Tullamore last month as Corofin virtually had to play the entire match with only 14-players after the controversial dismissal of attacker Martin Farragher.
Against that background, how fitting it was that Farragher led the demolition of Nemo Rangers in arguably the greatest ever performance produced by a Corofin team. Give them a dry sod, a big pitch and a cause – the Cork men were slight favourites – and the Galway champions are almost unbeatable. They were simply brilliant, with their slickness, support play and sheer quality turning a much-anticipated battle into a rout.
Farragher finished the 60-plus minutes with a fine haul of six points from play, but all-round the field Nemo Rangers, who appeared caught by surprise by Corofin’s intensity and movement, were chasing shadows. Within ten minutes of the start, they had fallen 1-6 to 0-1 behind and, by half-time, the game was over as the margin had stretched to ten points. And all of this happened when Nemo were playing with the wind.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.