John Divilly: Nobody says it loudly, but we all have huge admiration for Corofin

Two of the best and most consistent club sides in Connacht, went toe to toe in Tuam Stadium yesterday. Corofin produced the best and stylish football, yet they once again had to go extra-time to finish the job. Why do they make it hard on themselves, asks John Divilly.

That may sound tough on the Galway champions. I’m not. Hundreds of neutral Galway supporters stood on the terraces with me yesterday. Nobody says it out loudly, but secretly, we all have huge admiration for the way Corofin play football. At the start of every club championship in Galway, most teams have aspirations and desires of making the quarter-finals. In Corofin, they have aspirations of at least winning the Shane McGettigan Cup. No Corofin player will ever publicly state this. As with the Dublin footballers, they are not an arrogant bunch of guys. But you could say they play their football in a very arrogant way, because they have so much self-belief in themselves and their team.

In every line of the field yesterday, at least two Corofin players won their battles. Dylan Wall and Kieran Molloy won their duels in the half back line while behind them Liam Silke and Conor Cunningham cleaned up. Gary Sice and Jason Leonard won the half forwards battle and inside Colin Brady and the ‘Untouchable’ Ian Burke won theirs.