1 – MICHAEL COMER NULLIFIED SAVAGE THREAT
For Cortoon to win, they needed Derek to have a massive influence. The fact that they had to play him out on the wing meant they were robbing Peter to pay Paul and left him too far from the red zone.
Comer, who has been a county senior for six or seven years, is a very accomplished man-marker, and he was the ideal choice to take on the challenge of marking his former county colleague.
If Savage had more support from his attack and his midfielders, he might have had a bigger say in things, but with Comer sticking to him like a limpet he had a very frustrating afternoon.
2 – LACK OF MOBILITY IN THE ENGINE ROOM FOR CORTOON
Greg Higgins is having a very fine season for Corofin. He hit a vital goal against Caherlistrane in the semi-final and he is a player that Liam Sammon might consider having a serious look at. With a season or two under his belt he could be an option for Galway in the future.
Alongside him, Aiden Donnellan, who collected his eighth senior medal on Sunday, worked like a dervish all through. Their pace, runs, and ability to support the attack caused a lot of trouble for the Cortoon rearguard, and Fergal Heverin and Shane Gilmore didn’t have the legs to keep them in check.
3 – HUGE EXPERIENCE
Last Sunday was Cortoon’s first ever county final, whereas Corofin’s Trevor Burke has played in 10 finals and won nine. When things were going horribly for Corofin in the first half and they couldn’t buy a score, they did not panic. Gary Sice hit a stupendous side-line score and they went in level despite having served up 37 minutes of toxic football. The likelihood was that they would not be so bad in the second period. Senior county players like Fitzgerald, Damien and Alan Burke, Sice, and Comer were always likely to talk the talk and walk the walk after they re-grouped.
Their management team could also bring on players like Trevor Burke, David Hanley, and Jason Killeen to steady the ship, and the more the game went on the more inevitable seemed the outcome.
