Intermediate
After two drawn games and a bout of extra-time, St. Michael’s finally overcame the challenge of a dogged Caltra last Saturday in the intermediate county final.
Gabriel Naughton’s side can only blame themselves for their wayward shooting in the first-half, but similarly to the first game they wouldn’t lie down and bravely fought their way back into the game.
Once again, St. Michael’s got off to the better start and led by 0-6 to 0-2 after 20 minutes. Man-of-the-match Eamonn Brannigan scored four of those from play. Only Shaun Keane and Alan Naughton could muster a score for their side in the opening exchanges, but three points in a row brought Caltra right back into the game before the break.
Despite losing by the minimum at half-time, Caltra could have been comfortably ahead. The north Galway side kicked a number of wides and dropped three shots short, much to the frustration of their management.
Brannigan opened the second-half how he finished the first with another from play and his side getting two more to give themselves a four point lead at the three-quarter mark.
Keane and the ever-impressive Naughton took over for their side during the final stages of the game, combining for five of the final eight points in a frantic finish. An incredible free from Keane in the 59th minute levelled the game before a 60th minute free from Brian Harlowe put his side ahead once again.
In the final minute of injury time Naughton showed his nerve to level the sides once again. Another draw and the game needed extra-time to try and find a winner.
Caltra were down to 14 for extra-time after a needless red card for Eoin O’Ceallaigh. Caltra started extra-time the better with two more points for Naughton before Ronan McIlroy fired in the only goal of the game for the city side. Naughton scored another free before the break and Ross Hannon added another before St. Michael’s took over for the rest of the game scoring the last four points and making a quick return to the senior ranks for 2025.
Caltra have shown huge improvement this year. Incredibly, they started the game with 12 players aged 22 or younger. Centre-forward Mikey Mulryan has a bright future ahead of him, being one of the standout players for his team.
Not much of a break however for St. Michael’s as they play Crossmolina Deel Rovers this Saturday in McHale Park at 1.30pm. Crossmolina needed a replay in their own county final to defeat Moy Davitts in a score line of 1-13 to 0-12.
Junior
In the Junior promotional final An Ceathru Rua have defeated Salthill/Knocknacarra 1-08 to 0-6 to make a quick return to intermediate football for 2025.
An Ceathru Rua suffered successive relegations in 2022 and 2023, but under the stewardship of Maghnus Breathnach they won every championship match this year. They defeated Carna-Caiseal in the city and West championship before defeating Killererin in the primary Junior 1 county final, before finally winning the promotional final last Saturday.
Next up for An Ceathru Rua is Cill Chomáin of Mayo in the Connacht junior football championship semi-final. The game will be played in Tuam Stadium on Saturday with throw in at 1.30pm.
Senior
For the second year in a row, Corofin have been knocked out of the Connacht championship by a Roscommon team.
On the day Padraig Pearses were far better and won the game with a clinical first-half display. Much like last year’s Connacht final, Corofin’s full-back line struggled with a top class full-forward line.
Last year Ben O’Carroll did the damage, whereas this year, 1-4 for the sensational Paul Carey coincided with 0-3 for Eoin Colleran to do the damage. Despite being the better team, Pearses also got the rub of the green throughout the game.
Once in each half Corofin felt that they had scored a point that was chalked off, while Carey’s ninth minute goal was scored after taking a dubious number of steps. Cunningham’s wrap around tackle seemed to allow the referee the easy decision to allow that to cancel out Carey’s steps. Pearses, however, were clinical and played quick direct football. They were full deserving of their eight point half time lead.
Corofin raced into a two-point lead early with fine scores from Dylan Canney and Darragh Silke, but struggled for the rest of the first-half. The Galway champions did not score from the 4th to the 18th minute and were trailing 1-8 to 0-3 at the break.
Corofin started the second-half with great hunger, but struggled to break down a well-organised Pearses defence. Scoring four of the first six second-half points, Kevin Johnson’s side still trailed by six with five minutes to play. In those five minutes, Corofin brought the game back to a one score game thanks to quickfire points from Kieran Molloy, Michael Lundy and Liam Silke.
With all the momentum behind them, Corofin pushed everybody forward to press the kickout, but Declan Kenny won Whelan's kickout straight after. He played a long ball into substitute Jack Nevin who rolled the ball into the Corofin net to finally kill off the game and confirm a fantastic win for Frank Canning’s side. Having already defeated All-Ireland finalists St. Brigid’s in the Roscommon championship, this is a huge scalp for Pearses who now face Leitrim champions Mohill this weekend in the Connacht semi-final.
Corofin must now lick their wounds over the Christmas period and go back to the drawing board to find a way to get over the line in Connacht. After celebrating his 40th birthday on Saturday, Gary Sice was hoping to get a much better birthday present. But it wasn’t to be for his club this time around.
Questions will be asked over the next few months as to whether Sice will be back for his 23rd season of Senior football next year. With four All-Ireland titles, seven Connachts, and 14 Frank Fox wins, Sice has nothing left to prove to anyone.
However, it wouldn’t be a surprise to see a player so driven give it a go at reaching 15.
