Johnson: ‘We knew the opening quarter was going to be massive’

Kevin Johnson is a widely-experienced manager at the helm of a widely-experienced group of players in Corofin, and once he found out on Saturday afternoon that Ballina had opted to play into the breeze in the first-half, he knew that it was vitally important that his players hit the ground running, and didn’t let any of their wind-assisted time go to waste.

“We knew coming into Salthill, with the gale force wind like that, it was always going to be a game of two halves. With the wind in the first-half, to put up nine scores was really rewarding, and we’re delighted with that,” he told the Western People afterwards.

“It was Ballina that won the toss and chose to play against the breeze in the first-half. For us to come out then, we knew that those first fifteen minutes were going to be massive. We put the big squeeze on and got rewarded for that. We were lucky that a six-point lead going in at half-time was exactly what we would have liked.

“We put in massive tackles all day, and when you’re putting in work-rate like that and you’re turning ball over like that, the next phase is much easier, it’s much easier to play when you have the ball. So it was the work-rate off the ball, that gave us the possession to go and put up those scores,” said Johnson, who previously managed Ballintubber and Tourlestrane in the Connacht senior club championship also.

After racking up that half-time lead, Corofin had to find another run of form in the final quarter, to repel a Stephenites surge.

“We knew Ballina were going to do that, they’ve been doing that all year in Mayo,” he said.

“They’re a very proud team and a very good team, and they would have struggled as well with injuries. You could see Dylan Thornton coming on, he got taken off again, Padraig O’Hora not starting, all of that gave us a little more energy all the time.” 

Corofin’s victory over Moycullen in this year’s Galway senior final made it three championships in three different Connacht counties for Johnson as a manager, following on from his wins with Tourlestrane and Ballintubber. His prospects of adding a Connacht title and maybe more to his list of achievements looks to be in robust health too, with further reinforcements set to come into a side that is already incredibly strong.

“Daithí (Burke) coming to training on the Wednesday night after the county final was great to see, and we’ve more players to come back. Kieran Molloy was away travelling this week, so we’re hoping to only get better.

“We’re delighted to be there (in a Connacht final), and what a target. Can we go for the year, can we get to a Connacht final now after Galway? We’re looking forward to tomorrow, Mohill against St Brigid’s tomorrow is going to be a brilliant game. It’s a great two weeks ahead of us, it’s an exciting time,” he concluded.