Joe Corcoran

Joseph Corcoran (1940 – 23 October 2017) was an Irish Gaelic footballer. His league and championship career at senior level with the Mayo county team spanned three decades from 1958 until 1974.^[2]

Born in Ballina, County Mayo, Corcoran played at golf in his youth.^[3] At the age of fourteen he first played competitive Gaelic football with the Ardnaree Sarsfields club. He later progressed onto the adult team and won two county junior championship medals.^{[citation needed]}

Corcoran made his debut on the inter-county scene when he was selected for the Mayo minor team. He was an All-Ireland runner-up in this grade in 1958, having earlier won a Connacht medal. Corcoran made his senior debut during the 1958-59 league and, after a brief spell with the Mayo junior team, he became a regular member of the team. Over the course of a sixteen-year career, he won Connacht medals in 1967 and 1969, followed by a National League medal in 1970. Corcoran played his last game for Mayo in March 1974.^{[citation needed]}

As a member of the Connacht inter-provincial team on a number of occasions, Corcoran won a Railway Cup medal in 1969.^{[citation needed]}

Kevin McStay mentioned Corcoran as only being matched by Cillian O'Connor in the pantheon of Mayo forwards. "Ciaran McDonald was a completely different type of forward. He wasn't amassing the numbers Cillian gets. So that's two top class forwards, heavy scoring machines in 50–60 years", McStay told Dermot Crowe in 2022.^[4]