Corofin to strike a blow

Munster Intermediate Club Hurling Championship Final
Corofin v Castlelyons (Cork) at TUS Gaelic Grounds Limerick, Saturday 6pm (Conor Doyle, Tipperary)

Corofin will be determined to make it third time lucky for both themselves and the county when taking to the field in Limerick on Saturday evening. While it’s a first ever Munster Intermediate Club Hurling decider for the famed North Clare dual club, they have experienced the occasion twice before in football, the latest only being two years ago against Kerry’s Na Gaeil in Mallow. So with half that team expected to line out on Saturday evening, it’s an experience that simply has to stand to them.
At least the playing field is level as while Kerry representatives have dominated the provincial intermediate and junior football championships with a whopping 33 Munster titles out of 40, the hurling equivalents are much more attainable as evidenced by Monaleen’s surge to provincial and All-Ireland honours last year, having only edged out Doora/Barefield by a puck of the ball along the way.
With Corofin taking down Limerick’s latest champions Dromin-Athlacca last time out, they won’t fear taking on the might of Castlelyons who maybe facing into their first ever campaign outside of the Rebel County but showed their teeth as well to shade a titanic battle with hosts Crotta O’Neill’s on their provincial competitive bow.
Add in Cork’s enviable recent record in this competition as this is the fifth final for their representatives in six seasons that includes three titles, two coming against Clare opponents Kilmaley (2017) and Feakle (2018) and it’s far from a straight-forward task for Joe Cahill’s side.
One shouldn’t underestimate how much of a boost the manner of their away victory over Lorrha will have or indeed the immeasurable joy of a Munster home victory but more than that Corofin may well profit from a greater spread of scoring options on Saturday evening.
After all, with every club at this level possessing at least one or two expert man-markers (Castlelyon’s Cork senior duo of Colm Spillane and Niall O’Leary spring to mind), Castlelyons’ over-reliance on inside duo of Anthony Spillane (4-14) and David Morrison (5-6) for scores along with Alan Fenton’s unerring freetaking (1-59) could well be their Achille’s heel if curbed.
Corofin meanwhile have had 19 different scorers, eight of which have raided for seven points or more from play including the Cahill brothers Diarmuid (3-10) and Gearoid (1-16), the Kelly brothers Gearoid (0-46, 13 from play) and Micheál (2-10), Shane O’Brien (2-9), James Organ (0-8), Jamie Malone (0-7) and the outstanding Conor Leen (0-10).
So in a game of inches, that variety of scoring options could well be the difference in Corofin bringing back the Hoare Cup to the county for the first time in eight years.