Gaelic Games

Corofin make it six Galway titles in a row but not without a fight

Mountbellew/Moylough finished the game with 12 players in a convincing loss

Corofin’s Dylan Wall and Jason Leonard celebrate after they beat Mountbellew/Moylough to win the Galway SFC title. Photo: Lorraine O’Sullivan/Inpho

Sun Nov 4 2018 - 16:24

Corofin 1-8 Mountbellew/Moylough 0-5

It took two hours to separate the teams but Corofin finally claimed a sixth Galway SFC title in a row thanks to Dylan Wall’s early goal and four points from Gary Sice.

Mountbellew/Moylough finished the game with 12 players following a red card for Noel McDonagh,  two yellows for Barry McHugh and Michael Daly’s late black and red cards, while Kieran Fitzgerald also finished the game on the sidelines after he earned two bookings as he won a 13th Galway senior medal.

Mountbellew/Moylough’s defensive set-up got off to a great start when Michael Daly pointed from distance in the first minute, but two minutes later Corofin hit the net when Liam Silke and Wall linked up and Wall beat Damien Boyle with a crisp shot.

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Michael Daly added a second point from the right, but it seemed as if Corofin had finally figured out how to cope with Mountbellew/Moylough’s tactics when they reeled off four points without reply, but McHugh and Eoin Finnerty pointed for Mountbellew/Moylough to make it 1-4 to 0-4 at the break.

McHugh had the chance to put two points between the sides but his free from outside the 45 metre line sailed wide in the only action of note in the 10 minutes after the restart. However, Sice instead added to Corofin’s lead with a 42nd minute free.

Faced with a double scores deficit Mountbellew/Moylough had to be a little more adventurous and Paul Donnellan was denied a goal by a smart Dylan McHugh block, and when the resultant 45 from McHugh was kicked wide their chances of victory went with it.

COROFIN: B Power; C Silke, K Fitzgerald, L Silke (0-1); K Molloy, D McHugh, D Wall (1-0); D Burke, R Steede (0-1); J Leonard, M Lundy, Colin Brady (0-1); G Sice (0-4, 0-3f), Michael Farragher (0-1), Martin Farragher.

Subs: C Cunningham for C Silke (49 mins), D Canney for Martin Farragher (57 mins), Ciaran Brady for D Burke (64 mins), D Silke for Leonard (64 mins), B O’Donovan for Molloy (65 mins).

MOUNTBELLEW/MOYLOUGH: D Boyle; M Mannion, G Donoghue, G Sweeney; P Donnellan, N McDonagh, J Daly; M Daly (0-2), M Barrett; S Boyle, C Murray, E Finnerty (0-2); C Mannion, B McHugh (0-1, 0-1f), A Barrett.

Subs: L Donnellan for A Barrett (h-t), C Ryan for C Mannion (47 mins), A Barrett for S Boyle (54 mins), B Mannion for L Donnellan (64 mins).

Referee: Tomas O Flatharta (Galway).

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