Martin Farragher hasn’t played for Galway in a few years, but it doesn’t really bother him too much.
How could it?
A key member of the Corofin senior football team, he hasn’t exactly been twiddling his thumbs this last while. For six years in a row now they’ve won the Galway senior football championship and in four of those campaigns, they’ve gone on to win Connacht.
That’s seen one club season run into the next year and so on and with the country’s third most successful football club preparing for a third Patrick’s Day finale in the last five years, himself and his Corofin clubmates haven’t really had time to focus on the county team.
That’s Galway’s loss.
Because watching Corofin play football like they did against Gaoth Dobhair and like they have been for the last few years, it’s clear that they would put it up to most county teams in the country.
‘Sure Galway should just play with 15 Corofin men.’
People may be joking when they say it but it pops up too often to be a coincidence. Corofin are just that good of a club, that good of a team.
Yet last year, Ian Burke was the only Corofin man to play a minute in Galway’s championship defeat of Kerry. Silke was away alright, but men like Molloy, Farragher, Steede and Leonard didn’t get a sniff of it.
We were chatting to Martin Farragher, the team’s livewire corner forward at the AIB All-Ireland club finals media day and he explained his Galway situation.
“I suppose I was in there a few years ago but it didn’t really work out for me personally. Hopefully in the future I might get a call-up or I might get a chance. But we’ll see how things pan out. At the moment, I’m concentrated fully on Corofin. These opportunities don’t come around too often so I’m focused fully on this at the moment.”
The club holds the most weight in west Galway and with the Corofin lads constantly missing out on Galway’s League campaign, it makes it hard for them to break through.
Either way, playing with the club is their main focus.
“The GAA is a huge part of the community in Corofin. I suppose from the age of eight or nine you’re going around with a football in your hand and that’s just the way that things are done in Corofin.”
Football is the be-all and that winning culture is the end-all – from underage all the way up.
“I suppose it comes from our underage structure that we have. From day one of my career anyway and I’m sure its’ the same for a lot of lads on the team, the likes of Frank Morris and Tom Greaney would have developed the underage.
“That’s probably the main reason we’re winning and bringing in so many new lads that are up to the standard.”
A great point by Corofin's Martin Farragher! pic.twitter.com/XnjvqgSuVC
— The GAA (@officialgaa) March 17, 2018
Their slick attacking play is their deal-breaker and Farragher admits that it’s a joy to be in the middle of it when they hit full flow.
“When things work well and things are clicking, there’s nothing better than playing for Corofin. You have the players around you like Ian Burke, Gary Sice, these lads can create some moments of magic at times. The likes of Gary Sice and Kieran Fitzgerald have been incredible club men for years now, they’d be lads that I would have looked up to when I was younger. They’ve been inspirational to me.
“We work as hard as we can for each other. It’s a real team game for us.”
Up next are old rivals Dr Crokes. The last time they met, the Kerry kingpins gave Corofin a lesson and Farragher has huge respect for their way of doing things.
“To be fair, Crokes are a serious team. They have some very good players such as Johnny Buckley, Micheal Burns, Gavin White. These are top, top players for Kerry and they’re leaders for their club.”
“They have a very good underage structure there coming through so they’re constantly bringing through younger lads that have serious skill and they’ll be definitely hard beat on Paddy’s Day.”
One of these up and coming stars with serious skill is Tony Brosnan – a man who Farragher spent a summer stateside with.
“In 2015 I went to Boston. I actually played with Tony Brosnan from Crokes out there. He’s a serious player,” he said.
It took a while for Brosnan to make his breakthrough, but he’s flying it now in the black and amber.
“It just shows the top quality of Crokes, when he’s a sub on the team and now the Gooch is a sub as well. It just shows how incredible they are.
“He’s very good (Brosnan), yeah. He was very good with me, it was me and him inside in the full-forward line out in Boston and he was a very good player… We definitely would have gotten on out in Boston. I think everyone got on.”
Some full forward line that was.
The American dream is something many club players across the country pursue in the summer months with the county game taking hold, and he really enjoyed his travels.
“Yeah it’s definitely good to get a break. Over the summer months you get some time off. You might have two games before the summer arrives and then you get a few months off. It’s good for the younger lads to get away and experience things, especially in the likes of Boston and Chicago. They were two trips that I really enjoyed out there.”
For now though, it’s all about St Patrick’s Day where they seek a second Andy Merrigan Cup in a row.
“It would be great. But we just take it game-by-game. There’s no point looking too in-depth about it. We can look back on everything at the end of our careers and see what we’ve achieved, but for now it’s just 60 minutes on Paddy’s Day. We’ll get over that hurdle and see what happens then.”
Dr Crokes’ Gavin White, left, and Corofin’s Martin Farragher ahead of the AIB GAA All-Ireland Senior Football Club Championship Final taking place at Croke Park on Sunday, March 17th. Having extended their sponsorship of both Club and County for another five years in 2018, AIB is pleased to continue its sponsorship of the GAA Club Championships for a 29th consecutive year. For exclusive content and behind the scenes action throughout the AIB GAA & Camogie Club Championships follow AIB GAA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat.
