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*Gearoid Cahill offloads the ball for Corofin. Photograph: Burren Eye Photography
COROFIN took a big step towards avoiding a relegation battle when prevailing over St Breckans, a result that has taken “pressure” off their cause.
A first win in the Clare SFC since 2022 saw Corofin defeat St Breckans 1-13 0-9 in round two which gives them the likely scenario of lining out in a preliminary quarter-final if not advancing directly to the last eight following the conclusion of the group stages.
As it stands, Kilmurry Ibrickane with two wins from both rounds sit top of Group 3 with four points followed by Lissycasey and Corofin both on two points with St Breckans at the foot of the table with zero wins.
If St Breckans defeat Lissycasey and Kilmurry Ibrickane maintain a one hundred percent winning record at Corofin’s expense, then three teams will be tied on two points meaning scoring difference from their games determines the outcome and not their respective clashes with the Bricks.
St Breckans (-7) need to beat Lissycasey (+4) by at least twelve points to avoid a relegation play-off so while Corofin (+3) are as good as safe.
Manager Peadar O’Brien told The Clare Echo, “We’re plus three, Breckans are minus seven, they have to really give a good beating to Lissycasey to get us into it, we should be safe, that is huge, the Kilmurry game is irrelevant in the scoring difference side of it so it is brilliant to win a game and see where we go from here”.
Picking up a win in the Clare SFC is a big lift for Corofin, Peadar noted. “It is our first win up in senior since 2022, we have won a couple of relegation games but we haven’t won a senior championship game since, hopefully it will take off a bit of pressure and lads will go out and express themselves from now on”.
For round two, Damien O’Loughlin and Cilléin Mullins both made their first appearances of the championship from the bench. Mullins entered the fray on forty three minutes and managed to dislocate and put his finger back into place within moments. “It was a positive to get them on the field, Damien had nothing done, we didn’t know coming today if he would play or not, he said I won’t chance it for the full game, he said there was ten or fifteen minutes in him and hopefully we might have Diarmuid (Cahill) the next day so that improves our options, we can’t afford to be without bodies, you don’t know because we’ve hurling next weekend so we can’t go picking a team for the next day yet, there’s a lot of things that can happen”.
Cahill returned to action for Corofin’s hurlers off the bench when they accounted for Parteen/Meelick meaning a football appearance is likely on Sunday (13:00) in Cusack Park against Kilmurry Ibrickane but former Clare footballer Jamie Malone is expected to miss round three.
Seanán Kirby’s fifteenth minute goal versus Breckans was a turning point, he felt. “The goal was a major settling point, it came so early and compared to the Lissycasey game when we went twenty eight minutes without a score, it made an awful difference and really got us into the game, we got a foothold, we competed reasonably well on their kickouts, Tristan (O’Callaghan) was a huge loss for them going off and we wish him all the best, we competed well and we got over the line for the finish”.
Once Kirby hit the net, Corofin never looked back and led for the remainder of the game. “We got the few scores consistently away which kept us ticking over, going a few points up at half time was a bonus, it was a different team talk than if we were going in two or three points down and had lads struggling around the place, you couldn’t say anyone was going badly, they were all competing well, once you get that you can’t ask for much more”.
Prior to this, Corofin trailed on three different occasion, allied with their poor start against Lissycasey where they conceded 1-8 without reply, they will put a strong focus on getting into games from the off. “We have won a game now, that should take off some of the pressure, there’s lads there that have never won a senior football game, they are senior footballers now and hopefully that will drive them on a small bit and we can progress from here”.
