Fermanagh's Senior Statesman Dominic Corrigan Donegal's emergency full back. Matt Gallagher, would like the rest of his defensive colleagues, be well advised to turn a blind eye to pre-match talk this week concerning the apparent sluggish, laboured movements of the Fermanagh attack. Some scribes, of the blinkered variety, have already waxed ad nauseum about the Lakeland County's supposed weaknesses up front. They point an accusing finger at what some of them view as the inability of the Fermanagh frontmen to win possession. Fermanagh full forward, Dominic Corrigan, is far from being paranoid or upset about the endless media coverage in support of such a theory. On the contrary, the Kinawley clubman would be the first man to hold his hand up high in proclaiming the areas of the game not yet up to the required standard in the Fermanagh camp. He's also a player slow to throw out bouquets when others less experienced in the art of media relations jump in with both feet. Dominic Corrigan is nevertheless a journalist's delight and an attacker from the so-called Cinderella county who's determined to be first to the ball when the opportunity presents itself this Sunday. Still only thirty years old, the fully-qualified Physical Education Teacher will be the most Senior hand on deck for Fermanagh this weekend as the provincial minnows bid to sink Donegal's plans to cruise through to the Ulster decider., He's still young, yet he's an old crusader in the Green and Red colours of his native county and all of Fermanagh would love to see him bag a few goals against last year's beaten finalists and the bookies red-hot favourites to win this weekend's penultimate Ulster Senior Championship duel. If the truth be known, most of all Ulster would love to see Corrigan 4 and Co. upset the odds. If Down or their eventual ^ successors were never to win another All-Ireland for when Down provided the veritable baptism of fire, Dominic Corrigan is well positioned to size up the current strength of the Fermanagh panel and to place the team's performance in perspective. "Okay, we beat Antrim by ten points in the corresponding fixture last year, but credit to them. They came on a lot between, with P.J. O'Hare and Frank Fitzsimons generating a great team spirit among the players, something which was obviously missing last year. We didn't get worse in the space of twelve months. Antrim improved a lot. That's why it was so close at Irvinestown," the Saint Michael's, Enniskillen teacher explained. A winner of a Division 2 County League medal, two Intermediate Championship medals (1981 and 1988) and a sprinkling of Underage souvenirs, Dominic Corrigan's claim to fame in recent years has been in his coaching capacity at the famed college - St. Michaels, Enniskillen. As team manager of the school's Corn na nOg side who went all the way in Ulster, Corrigan is recognised as having a fine understanding of the finer details of blackboard football. He's particularly pleased that his success along the sideline as a mentor should coincide with the victory, also this year, of the Peter McGinnity trained St. Michael's McRory Senior team. The double celebrations were the first of their kind ever to pertain to the Enniskillen college and Dominic expresses the hope that the Underage success for the flagship of school's football in Fermanagh will prove a good omen for Fermanagh in this year's ongoing Ulster Senior Championship campaign. Now based in Saint Michaels for close on six years, an All-Ireland Colleges medal achieved in the victorious Trench Cup winning Jordanstown team of 1984 represents probably the most singular prestigious medal that the Fermanagh target man has won to date. Tyrone's James Devlin, Derry's Eugene Young and Armagh's Colin Harney were on that team, a victory Dominic had reason to recall last Sunday, as he witnessed his then marker Pat Rowe of Laois and formerly of beaten finalists Thomond College bow out of the Leinster Championship. The former St. Aidans, Derrylin, and St. Michaels graduate isn't a man particularly keen on recalling days gone by for, in truth, Dominic Corrigan has had enough of football in Ulster's second speed lane. He has seen colleagues and teams learn lessons the hard way and others failing when it comes to learning from their mistakes. Teams, he points out, like the Fermanagh side of 1982, who surprised the whole province by reaching the Championship final that year, only to lost by three points to Armagh. "After Peter (McGinnity) scored that fantastic goal in the second half, we needed to kill Armagh off but we let them off the hook and Joe Kernan and his mates made us pay dearly for that. The same happened against Donegal in last year's semi-final. The team got complacent, the occasion got to them at a critical time and bang went their chance," the one-time Fermanagh corner back explained. Married to Mary (nee McCabe), an Aghadrumsee lady, the Corrigans have one child, Tomas, his dad's number one supporter, and a sometimes cheerleader for Dominic's brother Michael in the colours of Brian Borus. One of the fastest men "off the mark" on the inter-county football scent, the five foot ten inches, twelve stone eight pounds veteran would dearly love to be able to bestow an Ulster Senior Championship medal to wee Tomas. If justice was served and sentimentality won Championships, men like John Rehill, Malachy O'Rourke and captain, Colin Curran, would surely accompany Corrigan on the winners' podium on July 19th next. O'Rourke lines out for the same Derrylin O'Connells club as do Brian Maguire and Gus Gilheaney, a couple of Minors who play against Donegal on Sunday. Romanticism and the winning of titles are seldom partners in the same order of things and whatever else Dominic Corrigan may admit about omens etc-he's a realist at heart. Players like Mick Brewster, J.J. Treacy, Ciaran Campbell and Peter McGinnity, he muses, would have gained their just reward in football had romanticism anything to do with the selection of the Anglo-Celt Cup winning combinations. One of a family of eight, Fermanagh's lone survivor of their '82 campaign, (M. J. Sheridan another survivor is a panelist this year) believes that the spectre of Sunday's rank-outsiders "freezing" on the day is the biggest danger to the side. "I don't think the team will freeze. We can't afford to and we all know that each player will have to play to his potential in order to beat Donegal. Having said that, last year's experience in losing to the same opposition at the same stage of the competition should, in hindsight hold us in good stead." A key player in feeding the likes of recognised score-getters like messrs. Coyle and Gallagher/Corrigan's forte has often been deemed to be his work rate and running off the ball, ready and in space to take delivery of good quality service. Corrigan, like all the current Fermanagh squad, have benefited considerably since the coming-on board of Hugh McCabe as team manager and assistants Benny Burns and Mannix McGee. "The team was somewhat unsettle during the League although John Vesey and the County Board did well. The new management team has given the panel a whole new lift and morale has improved brilliantly," explained the affable attacker who, along with Colin Curran, midfielders McCann and Rehill and Bradley, is viewed as a potential match winner for the match underdogs. Concentrating especially on working towards closing down Donegal's dangermen in attack, Corrigan admits that the onus is one the Fermanagh forwards to tackle back to become emergency defenders when not in possession. If's a sure-fire way to diminish the potency of men like Martin McHugh and Joyce McMullen, on paper that is. Fermanagh's most Senior citizen believes, however, that colleagues Gallagher and partners can produce the goods on the day. The scene is all set than. A carbon copy of the task facing a 20 year old Kinawley maverick and fourteen other Fermanagh players back in '82 when a Frank McGuigan powered Tyrone seemed set to blitz their way past their near neighbours and into an Ulster final meeting with the Orchard County. As the annals will testify, the favourites were unceremoniously dumped by the Ulster minnows. It was a text book exercise in using the tag of underdogs to catch your lofty opponents on the hop. Tyrone fell under the weighty blow of a double from messrs. Corrigan and McGinnity. The former inflicted 1-3 on the match favourites. How he'd love to see a repeat of that upset this Sunday. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 19th June 1992 Tweet

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