Rochford not surprised ‘hugely talented’ Corofin in decider

AIB All-Ireland Club SFC semi-final: Corofin (Galway) 1-14 St Vincent’s (Dublin) 1-9: Strange as it sounds now, there was a time when Corofin were regarded as a defensive team. The Donegal of the Galway club scene.

Maybe that’s the legacy of having an All-Ireland winning captain back boning your defence, Ray Silke. Or maybe they were just playing to their strengths. Either way, the message sent out to Michael Lundy as a youngster growing up in the club was pretty clear.

“It was, ‘we’ll concede less than you will and we’ll win the game that way’,” recalled Lundy.

There is a new regime in Corofin these days, however, and it is thrilling to watch. Yes, they remain steadfast in defence. Since claiming the Galway title they have played four games and conceded an average of just 7.5 points per game. A truly miserly statistic.

But, up front is where this Corofin team come alive and, at times on Saturday, they set the mind alight with their incisive kick passing, hard running and creative over laps.

Nobody impressed more than Lundy who ran from deep at the Vincent’s defence and caused them all sorts of trouble, kicking four points from play. Ian Burke was excellent too while the precise kick passing of players like Gary Sice opened it all up. In the end, they should have won by more than five points.

“Since Stephen Rochford has come in as manager he’s kept things tight at the back but he’s brought a new philosophy and he’s encouraged us to express ourselves as forwards, I think it’s showing now every time we go out to play,” said Lundy.

“We’re trying to play to our strengths because we do have the forwards there that like the ball to be kicked in. It’s not something we specifically work on. But football is football, you kick the ball and that’s the way we like to play.”

Long may it continue because Corofin’s searing attacking play is an antidote to the often claustrophobic inter-county product. For 40 minutes in Tullamore, they captivated the 4,188 crowd and but for Gary Delaney’s missed penalty, moments before Tomas Quinn’s converted penalty for Vincent’s, this game could have been decided a lot earlier. As it happened, Corofin had to show more steel than silk in the last 20 minutes to get over the winning line. In the process, they made it third time lucky after losing semi-finals in 2010 and 2009. The next step is to repeat the heroics of Galway sides Caltra and Salthill-Knocknacarra in 2004 and 2006 by winning the title on St Patrick’s Day.

“You might say that but we’d always look to follow our own Corofin team of ’98, they’re the ones we look up to,” said Lundy. “It would be nice to put ourselves on a level with them.”

On this form — Corofin shot nine goals between the Galway semi-final and final, nine in two Connacht games and have now dethroned the champions — they will be favourites on final day.

“I genuinely don’t mean this to sound cocky, but I’m not surprised we’re there,” said manager Rochford. “I felt since I got involved with this group two years ago that there’s huge talent, huge determination to get to this time of the year. Thankfully we’ve got a lot of smart footballers. I think Brian Cody uses the term that he’s just there as a ‘facilitator’. Really, that’s what it is here. The lads themselves are eager to move the ball and we’ve got good pace in the team.

“But they’re only the subtleties you see at the end of moves. It starts in defence and our defence was superb again. They turned over ball, blocked ball, they played in front, knew when to play in behind. It was a really big performance. I know there’s a focus on how we kick the ball, the goals we get and the scores we take but our defence was just monstrous again and that laid the foundation.”

Holding Diarmuid Connolly and Tomas Quinn to just two points from play between them was impressive.

“When you look back during the game and see Liam Silke, Cathal Silke and these lads taking balls off Diarmuid Connolly and the other Vincent’s players, you know you’re in a good place,” said Corofin’s experienced county man Sice.

It all amounted to an underwhelming afternoon for Vincent’s. The back to back Leinster champions were just 120 minutes from a successful All-Ireland title defence but came off second best in most areas. In truth, they were fortunate to only trail 1-8 to 1-6 at half-time.

“We talked about their forwards and their inside line was very good again,” said Vincent’s manager Tommy Conroy. “We sorted it a little bit in the second-half, we were getting more pressure on people out the field, on the kicker of the ball.

“But, again, their movement was just really good and they’re a fine side. They’ll take a lot of stopping on St Patrick’s Day.”

Scorers for Corofin: Martin Farragher (1-2), I Burke (0-5, one free), M Lundy (0-4), G Sice (0-3, three frees).

Scorers for St Vincent’s: T Quinn (1-1, one free, 1-0 pen), D Connolly (0-3, one free), R Trainor (0-2), B Egan, S Carthy and C Dorney (0-1 each).

COROFIN: T Healy; K McGrath, K Fitzgerald, C Silke; A Burke, G Sice, L Silke; G Higgins, R Steede; M Lundy, G Delaney, D Burke; Martin Farragher, Michael Farragher, I Burke.

Subs: D Wall for Steede (53), C Cunningham for A Burke (60), J Burke for Martin Farragher (60), K Murphy for Michael Farragher (62).

ST VINCENT’S: M Savage; H Gill, Cameron Diamond, J Curley; B Egan, G Brennan, M Concarr; E Fennell, G Burke; D Connolly, C Diamond, S Carthy; R Trainor, C Dorney, T Quinn.

Subs: T Diamond for Cormac Diamond (36), G Murphy for Dorney (41), E Brady for Concarr (55).

Referee: P Hughes (Armagh).