The Clare Champion Clare news, sport, entertainment and local notes
Munster Intermediate Club Championship Final
Na Gaeil (Kerry) v Corofin at Mallow, Sunday 1.30pm
(Jonathan Hayes, Limerick)
The wheel has come full circle for Corofin who, 15 years after being Clare’s first Munster Intermediate Club Final representatives, are back vying for honours once more against Kerry opposition this Sunday.
Only a late Ardfert goal denied the North Clare side of a historic provincial breakthrough in the Gaelic Grounds in 2006, which would prove a major turning point for both sides. Victory that day would have been a crowning achievement for Corofin goalscorer Colm Clancy and his brother player/manager Seamus, the duo that had been instrumental in a similar provincial giant-killing feat for Clare over Kerry at the same venue 14 years earlier.
On the flip side, Ardfert went onto capture Kerry’s first All-Ireland Intermediate success for what was the start of an utter dominance of the grade. Since Ardfert’s 2006 trail-blazing feat, Kerry clubs have annexed 12 of the last 13 provincial crowns and added six All-Ireland titles to boot. More than that though, the Kingdom have also been the kingpins of the junior equivalent with 16 of the last 19 Munster triumphs accentuated by ten All-Irelands, capped off by Corofin’s opponents Na Gaeil in the last national junior final played in January 2020.
Indeed, the Tralee-based side’s 21 point pummelling of Wexford’s Rathgarogue-Cushinstown equalled the biggest margin ever in an All-Ireland Junior Club decider but only reiterated the strength of Kerry football at all grades. Na Gaeil’s meteoric rise through the ranks has been bolstered by the emergence of county senior stars Jack Barry, Diarmuid O’Connor along with returning Australian rules player Stefan Okunbar and fellow new recruit under new Kerry manager Jack O’Connor, Andrew Barry.
Such an strong spine makes Na Gaeil a formidable force but while Clare clubs have lost five intermediate club finals to their Kerry opponents by an average of seven points, Corofin will take heart from St Breckan’s Munster Final display against Templenoe last time out in 2019 when pushing them all the way until being reduced to 14 by the three-quarter mark.
Indeed, of the three Corofin sides that have contested Munster, there is a justified excitement about the potential of this side who along with a character-filled finish against Kildysart in the county final, subsequently added Under 21A hurling silverware with amalgamation partners Ruan and with a bit of luck might have completed an Under 21A double.
Their scoring prowess is undoubted too as the Cahill brothers, Gearoid and Diarmuid, 2019 All-Star nominee Jamie Malone and new Clare senior hurler Robin Mounsey provide a variety of threats that will trouble Na Gaeil’s equally noteworthy defensive core.
Corofin possess a great temperament too as they never panicked against Kildysart, Kildimo-Pallaskenry or Newmarket in their last three outings but how they set themselves up to combat a free-scoring Na Gaeil and in particular their inter-county midfield pairing of Jack Barry and Diarmuid O’Connor will ultimately dictate the narrative of this decider.
Unquestionably Corofin, backed by the confidence of the county’s first ever Intermediate club victory in Cork last time out, will never get a better chance of blazing a new trail to the winners’ enclosure.
However, it will take an unprecedented display of grit, character, goals and a dollop of fortune for the North Clare side to become Clare’s first ever Munster Intermediate club champions as based on history alone, anything but a Na Gaeil triumph would be seen as a major upset.
by Eoin Brennan
