NaomhEoin/O'Curry's 2:10 Corofin 2:12

At Ennistymon, Saturday November 7th.

The inclement weather of the previous 24 hours having waterlogged the original venue in Quilty, the game was moved up the road to Ennistymon GAA. Corofin started with the strong breeze assisting and made good use of it with Jamie Malone pointing in the 2nd minute. Our lads responded well with points from Jim Downes and Conor Magner, before Damian O'Loughlin used his fist to redirect a Malone free to the net. Two more frees and one from play had Corofin 1:4 to 0:2 ahead, but two nice scores from Jim Downes and Niall Bonfil closed the gap to three again. Another pair of Malone frees stretched it to five again, with indiscipline costing our lads dearly on a day that scoring from play was difficult. Then a good run from defence by Nigel Murray was supported by Cathal Downes, who drew the corner back before slipping to Jim Marrinan and he slotted it home. Malone responded from play before Conor Magner scored a beauty into the wind with the outside of his right boot from a free on the left wing, awarded for a foul on Niall Bonfil, leaving the game evenly poised at half time on a 1:5 to 1:7 scoreline.

What appeared a managable task became much more difficult within two minutes of the restart, when Corofin carried to the heart of our area and Damian O'Loughlin forced home a rebound and quickly added a point to move the North-Clare men six ahead. NEOC created a great chance to regain the initaitive when Jim Downes drove for goal but saw his shot cannon off the crossbar out beyond the support players. An ensuing free out was intercepted by Douglas Lynch who pointed, but the game deteriorated into a scrappy, foul-ridden affair for a period and Corofin maintained their five point advantage into the last ten minutes. Colin Vaughan extended their lead before Jim Downes and Cathal Downes cut the defecit to four, but Corofin rallied to score again and keep the margin to five points. Points were exchanged with Odhran Lynch kicking a fine score and Jim adding another free, and whilst Jim Marrinan did force home another goal in stoppage time it was the last play of the game so the two point margin was not as close as it reads.

Corofin move on to Munster Intermediate action next against St Marys of Caherciveen, with the u21B final v's St Joseph's Doora-Barefield on the following weekend. In the meantime, O'Currys went on to beat Doonbeg in the u21C semi final and now play Coolmeen GAA in the final on Sunday at 12. Good luck to O'Currys in that and to Corofin in their Munster quest.