Gearoid Cahill is tackled by Shane Hickey. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill.
ABSENCE OF KEY players was not used as an excuse by Corofin’s joint manager as they fell to a second successive loss in the TUS Clare SFC.
Kilmurry Ibrickane proved too strong for Corofin in Lissycasey on Saturday and ran out winners by a margin of thirteen points.
It has put a huge dent in Corofin’s aspirations to make the knockout stages for the second year in a row and follows their opening round two point defeat to St Joseph’s Doora/Barefield.
When it came to the first round, Corofin were without Diarmuid Cahill and Robin Mounsey, their two most effective forwards last season. While they welcomed Mounsey back and he was introduced as a half-time substitute, they were without their best player in Jamie Malone, the Clare footballer picked up a hamstring injury when lining out for the club’s intermediate hurlers last week.
Douglas Hurley who is Corofin’s joint manager alongside Geoff O’Sullivan was not going to use the absence of such key players as an excuse for their second loss. “As I said the last day to you we weren’t going to get any stronger, they were missing a lot of guys today so it’s not an excuse from us. With twenty minutes gone in that game, we were still in it but we just fell to pieces”.
Their second half performance where they were outscored 2-03 0-04 despite playing with a strong breeze was a source of disappointment. “There’s not much to say after that particularly after such a poor second half but for the first fifteen minutes against a strong breeze we were in it and even had a goal chance when we were a point down that would have put us up but then when they got their goal we seemed to fall apart, eight points down at half-time we were facing an uphill battle, we lost our shape completely in the second half”.
That goal chance which fell to Killian O’Connor on sixteen minutes and the concession of a first Daniel Walsh green flag on twenty six minutes served as defining moments in the game. “If we had got the goal at the other side it would maybe have been different but in the second half I think it showed the gulf in class that was between us today, we lost our shape completely so we’ll just have to look at it and see what went wrong”.
Speaking to The Clare Echo, Hurley was fearful the losing margin of thirteen points may be costly in their efforts to bounce back in the final round against St Breckan’s. “We’ve to try get a result against St Breckan’s now, we’re probably still in it but the losing margin from today could have a big bearing”.
