There was a huge shock in the @Galway_GAA Senior Championship today as 6/1 outsiders Mountbellew/Moylough defeated Corofin today to prevent the reigning All Ireland champions from winning their 50th straight game in the Galway Championship. Here’s my thoughts on the game. (1/

This was no lucky result as M/M held Corofin to just 18 shots, whilst they themselves managed to shoot 30 times during the course of the game. Indeed given Corofins’s 18 shots they did better than could be expected in scoring 12 times. Both teams shots shown here (2/

It is noticeable that when Corofin shot they shot from good locations; there weren’t many wild shots by the champions. However Corofin’s problem was that they didn’t generate sufficient shots to win the game. Why was this? (3/

Corofin struggled massively on their kickouts. From 20 kickouts they only won 11 of them. They really struggled in midfield as they lost (red dots) 9 of the 12 long kickouts they took. M/M cleaned them out in midfield (4/

M/M only scored 0-3 from the 9 Corofin kickouts they won, but just by winning the kickouts they starved Corofin of primary possession. M/M won 9 of their 14 kickouts, and they scored 2-4 from winning these 9 kickouts. M/M dominating the kickouts was a huge factor in winning (5/

Corofin had 18 shots and 17 of them were from play. M/M conceded just 1 scorable free during the entire game, and it took until the 58th minute for this to happen, and they were 6 up at that stage. They were tremendously disciplined in defence. (6/

The Timeline shows just what a 3rd quarter M/M had. They only lost possession once in this entire quarter (and that was when they fouled whilst in possession) and scored 2-2 during this period, while Corofin scored only 0-3 (7/

M/M didn’t lose a 2nd half kickout until the 59th minute. M/M forced 17 turnovers from Corofin’s 34 possessions, with 16 of these relating to incomplete passes. When the game was in the melting pot they stood up and did everything right. (8/

Ultimately, M/M's victory was built on a base of dominating midfield and scoring 2-7 from kickouts, compared to Corofin's 0-6, being disciplined in defence in not conceding scorable frees and turning Corofin over regularly. When teams do all that they'll normally win!! (9/9)