Intermediate
This Saturday, Caltra will face St. Michael’s in the intermediate football final. St. Michael’s are looking for an immediate return to senior level and their dismantling of Oranmore/Maree in their semi-final has installed them as clear favourites against a side that have won all of their games so far this year.
Gabriel Naughton’s Caltra have won each of their games by a minimum of five points and their talisman, Alan Naughton, is well out in front as the top scorer in this year’s championship.
Caltra have been defensively solid, while having the ability of Naughton and Shaun Keane up front to dismantle teams. Caltra conceded a goal to Glenamaddy after just seven seconds in their semi-final but recovered well to only concede another 1-2 across the game winning 1-10 to 2-2.
Naughton tallied another 1-4 for himself and Keane, although just scoring 0-1, was regularly a thorn in the opposition's side. Odhran Loughrey was in control of his defence, providing solid kickouts with effective communication which helped his side stifle the Glenamaddy attack.
Caltra were free-flowing in attack with direct runs and quality kick passing, similar to all of their games this year. A second-half goal for Glenamaddy levelled the game, but it only pushed Naughton’s side on again.
St. Michael’s on the other hand had an easy win in their semi-final over Oranmore/Maree, 0-19 to 0-7.
Gary Higgins put in another impressive performance, scoring his sides first three points to get the ball rolling and finished with a personal total of 0-9. Higgins and Eamonn Brannigan tore apart the Oranmore defence to score a combined total of 12 points while still having a hand in pretty much everything else going forward for their side.
Oranmore never really got going in the game and St. Michael’s showed why it was such a shock for them to get relegated last year. But the club have recovered well and are just one step away from a return to senior championship football.
The intermediate county final will be played in Tuam Stadium this Saturday at 2.30pm.
Junior
An Ceathru Rua are just one game away from returning to intermediate football after they defeated Killererin after extra-time in a thrilling primary junior 1 final.
Struggling for scores against the wind in the first-half, Maghnus Breathnach side managed to get two goals to end the half level at 2-3 to 0-9.
Scores dried up for both sides in the second-half scoring just 0-3 a piece with the equaliser coming in the fifth minute of injury time. Tom Hughes’ Killererin struggled to keep going in extra-time scoring just two points to An Ceathru Rua’s six.
An Ceathru Rua will now play Salthill/Knocknacarra in the promotion final after the seasiders beat Tuam Stars on penalties in the primary 2 final. The game finished 1-8 a piece after extra-time with Salthill/Knocknacarra winning 2-0 on penalties.
Senior
Corofin won their 23rd county title in terrible conditions at Tuam last Sunday by a score of 2-9 to 0-9. Corofin now march on to the Connacht quarter-final where they will face Padraig Pearses on the weekend of November 9/10.
A three minute period near the end of the first-half won the game for Corofin. Jason Leonard scored a free in the 25th minute, followed by pressure from Gary Sice forcing Maigh Cuilinn into a defensive error in the 26th minute allowing Jack McCabe to to tap the ball into an empty net.
Darragh Silke then scored points in the 27th and 28th minutes to put his side six up. Corofin don’t give up that sort of a lead and this forced Maigh Cuilinn to come out for the second-half and try to force a way back into the game. Maigh Cuilinn had enough chances to reel in Corofin but a combination of some good defending by the winners and some poor shooting by Maigh Cuilinn meant that Cathal Clancy’s side never got any closer than five points.
When they did get to just the five points, Gary Sice was on hand to fire the ball into the net and finally kill the contest in the 57th minute, in turn winning his 14th county title. With Sice having had such an influence over Corofin football for the last 20 years there will always be a worry that the club will struggle to replace him.
Not even Corofin can replace what he has done, but the wheel keeps on turning. With Jack McCabe scoring 1-1 and Patrick Egan getting man of the match for another outstanding performance in the middle of the field, as well as five members of this year's Galway u20 panel who didn't make the 26 for the game, Corofin have now won two county titles in a row and will feel a little less pressure about eventually replacing some of their elder statesmen.
Maigh Cuilinn struggled to get any flow into their game and only scored 0-3 from play. In the second-half especially, Corofin consistently pressed higher than they have in games this year and ran straight at the Maigh Cuilinn defence.
Colin Brady, on as a first-half substitute, scored two terrific points after running long distances with the ball. There wasn’t a lot of big hits but there was some ferocious tackling from Kevin Johnson’s side. Jack McCabe, Gary Sice and Darragh Silke all got numerous turnovers at different stages of the game.
Ciaran Brady justified his managers decision to start him with another destructive performance similar to the 2023 final against the same opposition. Brady, Egan and Michael Farragher easily won the midfield battle. Brady and Egan competed for and won more than their fair share of ball and Farragher ran the show with ease.
For the entire second-half Corofin knew that if they didn’t concede a goal they were sure to win the game and their defensive effort meant that they never looked like conceding one. Kieran Molloy never allowed Peter Cooke gain any sort of momentum in the game while Dylan McHugh, Conor Cunningham, Brian Cogger and the two Silkes, Cathal and Liam, tightened up at the back leaving no space through on goal.
