Corofin 3-10

Salthill-Knocknacarra 0-6

By Gerard Mulreaney at Tuam Stadium

CHAMPIONSHIP matches don’t usually come much bigger than this as two power-houses of Galway football met each other at Tuam Stadium in the opening round of the county championship on Saturday. Both of these sides are previous winners of the All-Ireland Club title, Corofin most recently in 2020, while Salthill-Knocknacarra won it in 2006.

Corofin, following their recent success in the league final where they beat Tuam Stars on penalties, were fast out of the traps, and started the game in fifth-gear, while Salthill-Knocknacarra, who were missing a number of key players, never really got out of first.

The city side, who came within a whisker of winning the Frank Fox Cup in 2022, were out-muscled, out-fought, and out-scored, in a game that many observers thought would be a tight, tricky, affair to kick off the championship.

Playing with the aid of a strong wind in the first half, Corofin scored two goals in the opening three minutes as they took an early grip on this Group 2 game. Dylan McHugh jinked past Tadgh Haran and fed the ball to Jason Leonard who scored into the top left-hand corner of Ruairí Lavelle’s net.

They followed that up two minutes later with another goal. This time it was championship debutant Jack McCabe who was on the end of as move involving Conor Cunningham and Gary Sice, whose original shot on goal was parried by Lavelle, but McCabe was quick to pounce on some shoddy defending, and he showed plenty of poise to score with his left foot.

Pictured: Corofin’s Conor Cunningham trying to break free from Evan Murphy of Salthill-Knocknacarra during Saturday’s Senior Football Championship Group 2 tie at Tuam Stadium. Photo: Joe O’Shaughnessy.