*Corofin captain Gearoid Cahill leads the celebrations. Photograph: Ruth Griffin
MEETING, training and going to the trenches with the guys you have grown up alongside in Corofin makes playing GAA with the club ‘one of the best feelings’ for Gearoid Cahill.
On Sunday, Gearoid captained Corofin to success in the Clare IFC final, accepting the Talty Stores Cup from Clare GAA Chairman Kieran Keating as they bounced back to the senior grade at the first time of asking.
During his speech, the Mary Immaculate College graduate pleaded with his teammates so that they could give senior football a right rattle next season. The continuity is vital for the club to compete in the top tier which was one of their lessons following relegation in 2024.
Heading to Páirc Finne in Corofin for training is among his highlights of the week, Gearoid admitted. “You will never deny a lad for going away especially some of the lads who have given twelve to thirteen years service for the club and have had much worse days than this so when they got the chance to go away by all means take it but from our own perspective there is a core group of ten or eleven of us who are out for the thirtieth weekend in a row between league and championship, maybe it is bias but I don’t think there is any better feeling in the world than meeting them lads three times a week and going into the trenches, we’ve had some awful tough days this year in both codes and some good days in codes but the good thing is next January we’ll go back and do it all again so that is the best feeling”.
Defeating Cooraclare to secure their return to the Clare SFC was filled with “relief” for Cahill. “We referenced it plenty of times during the week about the disappointment of last year, I know a lot of teams say they are written off coming into games, we weren’t written off, we were the favourites coming in after our second round performance against Cooraclare, that can be hard to deal with as a team but I do think we’ve taken a step in the right direction as a team this year because that tag would not have suited us in the last few years, we went down and we were able to blood a few new players, win tight games which we hadn’t been doing at senior level which is ultimately why we went down, to be able to win a few tight battles and get over the line is an unbelievable feeling”.
With five points from play, Gearoid produced a stellar display and one which is likely to see him added to Paul Madden’s Clare training panel over the winter. He praised coach Mark Rafferty for implementing a style of play which suits their forward line. “Credit to Mark Rafferty our coach, I don’t know the amount of kick passing drills we’ve done but it must be up in the hundreds, it’s been a refreshing feeling to be on the end of those kick passes when you are playing in there and then you have a job to do when you are in there, you have to try make them stick, I’m very lucky with the two boys beside me Diarmuid and Jamie”.
Forming part of the full-forward line with his younger brother Diarmuid and their idol former All Star nominee Jamie Malone is something he really enjoys. “Jamie is our hero to be honest for myself and Diarmuid, I was thinking coming in the car today when I was fourteen or fifteen years of age, he was senior training with the club and he hopped the wall, myself and Diarmuid were two young lads but he stayed kicking with us for half an hour, since then you just want to play as much as you can, last year he was a huge loss to us but he is literally our hero. Diarmuid we’ve been together since we were young kicking ball, you have that relationship that you know when he gets on the ball you need to be moving because he will kick it you, he is able to kick a pass, we’re lucky that the three of us are able to gel and we get on so well off the pitch that it translates onto the pitch”.
New rules combined with Rafferty’s approach have been embraced in Corofin, he told The Clare Echo. “I think the new rules have really helped. For the likes of myself inside for the last couple of years you’d get frustrated at being inside with eight or nine bodies around you but for a lot of the time today it was one on one, I must say the training we do even on Wednesday night myself and Diarmuid try always to mark the two O’Loughlins if we can for one on one defending because if you can kick one score off the O’Loughlins you know you’re in a good place coming into the weekend. We had a great training on Wednesday night, we had a great battle between the four of us, it really steels you for the one on one defending that the new game has brought, Marc has been an unbelievable coach and he will demand more off us, rightly so because there is more in us as a group going forward”.
County final excitement could not be escaped at home in Corofin or his job as a primary school teacher in Barefield National School. “I really enjoyed it, you have two options in that scenario, you can shy away from it all or you can embrace it, I try to embrace it for the kids more than anything, I’m so lucky to be teaching in Barefield, the staff and kids are so supportive, a couple of times I was hearing shouts in the second half of the game, it is a phenomenal school community out there, the big thing for me as a teacher is to try get as many children playing football and hurling it will bode well for Clare in the future. Myself and Peadar McMahon are involved in the school team, we’ve forty at training every Tuesday evening, it’s a remarkable place to be”.
