Corofin braced for mighty All-Ireland semi-final challenge against Dr Crokes
GALWAY and Connacht champions Corofin may be 60 minutes or so away from a second All-Ireland final appearance in three years but manager Kevin O’Brien says any talk beyond the 4pm throw-in at the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick would be “foolish”.
For O’Brien and Corofin, Saturday is their only focus and he insists there can be no other motivation outside of delivering a performance against Kerry holders, Dr. Crokes. “I think it would be foolish – and I can only talk about Corofin – to be looking any further than the game itself,” he began.
“We are down to the last four in the All-Ireland series and the stakes are high and, no matter the opposition, you are going to be playing against a good team. So, you cannot – and sport will prove this – take your eye off the ball. If you do, you know the result.”
Certainly, Corofin were not found wanting in this respect in their 2016 endeavours and in the county championship they won every game by five points or more. This included victories over Carna/Caiseal (2-20 to 0-8), Milltown (1-11 to 1-6) and An Cheathrú Rua (1-14 to 0-10) in the early rounds.
While the bookmakers may have had Corofin as firm favourites to claim an 18th county senior title from the off, what was impressive about O’Brien’s charges in the knockout stages was they defeated their three top challengers in Tuam Stars (2-10 to 0-9), Mountbellew/Moylough (3-13 to 1-11) and Salthill/Knocknacarra (0-16 to 0-11) in the quarter-final, semi-final and final respectively.
They subsequently carried this form into the Connacht championship, although it took them all their time to get over Castlebar Mitchells in the provincial semi-final. They eventually got there in extra-time, defeating the Mayo champions 0-17 to 0-14 to set up, on paper, a mouth-watering decider against St. Brigid’s of Roscommon.
However, the expected humdinger never materialised. Instead, Corofin turned up and gutted the St. Brigid’s challenge in much the same manner as a construction crew would an old decrepit building. Goals in either half from Michael Farragher and Jason Leonard saw the Galway men run out impressive 2-13 to 0-5 winners of the Shane McGettigan Cup.
For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.