O’Brien proud of his players as Corofin race to third crown
COROFIN manager Kevin O’Brien says Nemo Rangers will be back on the All-Ireland stage again but he was thrilled with the heroics of his players as they won another AllIreland at Croke Park.
The north Galway side contested All-Irelands in 1998 and 2015, and once again they weren’t found wanting at headquarters on St Patrick’s Day.
Corofin won their fifth Galway title in a row earlier this year and after storming through the rest of the provincial and All-Ireland campaign, they destroyed the country’s most decorated club football team.
Gary Sice and Michael Farragher scored the first-half goals for Corofin as they raced into a 2-9 to 0-5 half-time lead and there was no comeback.
‘I’m thrilled with that. The lads did it again today,’ said O’Brien.
‘Coming here, Nemo were the club who had all of the tradition.
‘We are a proud club as well, a bit like Nemo, and to win it like that is great.
‘They are a big strong club, they will be back and the experience of today will stand to them.
‘But we started very well. We always felt there was going to be a settling-in period. I don’t even know who won the toss but we started off well.
‘This a great achievement for the club. I am just lucky to be called the manager.’
Corofin were 1-1 to 0-0 ahead after just seven minutes, where Sice added a goal to his earlier point. Their forwards looked set to run riot with the vast amount of space available to them.
And Corofin scored 1-5 without reply between the 12th and 21st minutes, with Jason Leonard, Dylan Wall, Martin Farragher, Micheal Lundy and Sice all on target.
Michael Farragher’s goal pushed them clear on a 2-6 to 0-1 scoreline, and they were 10 points ahead by the interval.
Nemo Rangers were desperate for a fast start to the second half but they couldn’t stem the flow of brilliant balls into the Corofin full-forward line and Martin Farragher scored twice to make them pay.
He finished the game with six points from play, after he had been sent off early in their semi-final win over Moorefield.
‘Martin Farragher was outstanding and he deserves huge credit,’ said O’Brien.
‘The sending-off was unfortunate in the semi-final but [credit to him for] the way he conducted himself in the last few weeks. ‘But fair play to him for that and he kicked six points. He loves this place and hopefully we will have him back here again soon.’
Nemo had won seven of their 11 All-Ireland club finals prior to this, but they were out-classed by Corofin and their manager Larry Kavanagh knew it.
‘Shattered, shattered but it is what it is,’ said the Nemo Rangers bainisteoir.
‘We will have a look at it in the coming days and dust ourselves down. Hopefully we will learn our lesson. What can we do?
‘They are not a team you want to be chasing. We won the toss, we opted to play with the wind. We just fumbled a lot of ball.
‘We let the occasion get to us,’ he added. ‘It was just simple stupid mistakes. We tried to get a point or two ahead of them we ended up going three down and ended up chasing it.
‘They were just picking holes in us, they were very slick.’
coRoFIn: B Power; C Silke (D McHugh 56), L Silke, K Fitzgerald; C McGrath, D Wall, K Molloy (C Cunningham 46); D Burke (Ciarán Brady 59), R Steede; M Lundy (Colin Brady 49), G Sice, J Leonard (B O’Donovan 56); Michael Farragher, Martin Farragher (D Canney 62), I Burke.
scoReRs: G Sice 1-4 (0-2f), Martin Farragher 0-6, Michael Farragher 1-1, D Burke, D Wall, I Burke 0-2, M Lundy, J Leonard 0-1.
neMo RanGeRs: M A Martin; A Cronin, A O’Reilly, K O’Donovan; T Ó Sé (C Hogan 38), S Cronin, K Fulignati (C O’Shea 53); A O’Donovan, J Horgan (J O’Donovan 38); B O’Driscoll, P Kerrigan, C O’Brien; P Gumley (M Dorgan 38), L Connolly, C Dalton (C Kiely 48). scoReRs: L Connolly 0-6 (3f), P Kerrigan, P Gumley, J O’Donovan, C O’Shea 0-1. ReFeRee: D Gough (Meath).