Dylan McHugh flying flag for Corofin & eyeing Galway glory

Last year three Corofin players lined up for Galway in their All-Ireland senior football final showdown with Kerry.

The three - Kieran Molloy (26), Liam Silke (27) and Dylan McHugh (25) - are all around the same age and have been close friends since day one.

They each played a huge part in Corofin's time of superiority in the All-Ireland senior club series

Both Molloy and Silke started all the finals in their historic three-in-a-row success in 2018, '19 and '20.

McHugh started the 2019 decider and came off the bench in the 2018 and 2020 finals.

It was tough for him to see his friends not start the 2023 season in either a gold and green or maroon shirt. Molloy sustained an ACL injury - though he is recovering rapidly - while Silke decided to go travelling.

"As clubmates you would miss the two lads," McHugh told RTÉ Sport at the announcement of a five-year extension of AIB’s sponsorships of the GAA All-Ireland Football Championship, AIB Club Championships and AIB Camogie All-Ireland Club Championships.

"You’d miss them both with club and county. From a Galway point of view they are serious operators and I suppose people from the outside might have wondered if they would be replaced.

"But younger lads on the panel have stepped up this year, got game time and done well and they may not have had that if the two lads were around."

"There was something to show for the year at least and something to come back and fight for again."

McHugh said that losing last year's All-Ireland SFC final to Kerry hurt a lot, but he added that they had to respond.

"You could see what it meant to people," he said.

"There were more flags around, there were more good luck texts and more talk about it.

"We tried to treat is as any other match. To lose was tough