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GAA

04th Jan 2020

3 kicks takes Corofin the length of the field in total football exhibition

Niall McIntyre

Corofin 1-10 0-7 Nemo Rangers

Corofin are chasing down history, and they’re leaving a glistening trail in their wake.

No club team has ever won three All-Ireland club titles in a row but the Galway men are on schedule. Cruise control was the name of the game on Saturday afternoon, when they breezed past a disappointing Nemo Rangers challenge and now there’s only one more hurdle between Corofin and immortality.

In reality, they look unstoppable.

The scoreline said six here, but in reality Corofin could have, and should have won this game by ten. They played the Ennis field at a canter and had the Cork kingpins at arms length from pillar to post. Wayward shooting was the only blot on the Corofin copybook with numerous chances going a begging in the second half, but you can’t help but feel that if the need was there, Corofin would have got the scores.

They always get the scores when the moment demands.

So what’s sets them apart? Their fitness is one of their most notable fortes. From minute one, literally, they had Nemo chasing their tail and a Micheál Lundy goal but no more than ten minutes into the game, you could already see that Kevin O’Brien’s side had more in the tank than Nemo.

They swarm every break and when the ball is gathered, they attack at a charge and in numbers. So much so that the sight of full back Kieran Fitzgerald in the full forward line and Micheál Lundy down the other end, is a regular one.

Everyone has the licence to get forward in this finely tuned system but crucially, everyone must get back and defend too. Nemo had no answers for this galloping machine in Cusack Park and Corofin strode all over them.

The Farraghers were on song and their ball-striking is something to behold but the powerful running of Ronan Steede, Daithí Burke et al. and the guile and deftness of Ian Burke is unmatched.

These lads are a joy to watch in full flow and as an attacking unit, they’re rapid and slick. A Kieran Molloy point on the half hour mark summed it up. Three kicks takes the Corofin machine the length of the field.

God it’s a beautiful game when played like that.

The frightening is there’s more in them.

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