1 - TOP CLASS DEFENCE
When you have four county defenders of your seven starting players, you don’t expect to concede too much. Team captain Kieran Fitzgerald has led by example all season and he is a hugely popular figure both in the club and in the county. He is joined by three county colleagues in Michael Comer, who was excellent last Sunday, and Damien and Alan Burke. They have only conceded a combined 0-14 against Castlerea and the Harps.
Their other two defenders, Gary Delaney and Kieran McGrath, are very good players and would make almost any club team in the county.
And behind them young Bernard Power is developing into a really top-class goalkeeper who looks to have a huge career in front of him. Build your team from the back is an old adage, and Corofin are doing just that.
2 - GENUINE PACE ALL AROUND THE TEAM
Pace is one commodity you cannot buy. And Corofin have a lot of it .
Up front Joe Canney is a real knee-jerker for any full-back, and guys like Alan O’Donovan, David Hanly and Gary Sice are no slouches. Big Greg Higgins at midfield can shift down the gears too and Alan Burke is a blistering GTi model at wing-back.
Burke was glorious last Sunday and gave a fabulous display of wing-back play.
On numerous occasions he left three and four opposition players trailing in his wake and he has to be given a solid run of games at wing-back in the county jersey next year after his club commitments are over to see if he can transfer his breath-taking club form to the county set-up.
He got a raw deal last season, few would deny that, and no doubt based on what he has witnessed over the past few months, Liam Sammon will concur that Burke merits a right shot at a starting jersey next year. He is only 24, and if his pace and ball skill was channelled in the right direction on big pitches like Croke Park, he would be some addition to any team.
3 - EXPERIENCE - BOTH ON THE FIELD AND OFF IT
The majority of the Corofin players have been around the block. Centre-forward Trevor Burke made his senior club debut back in 1989 and midfielder Aiden Donnellan has pulled the number nine jersey over his back most years since 1993, while the vast majority of the starting XV have represented Galway at different grades.
That experience is invaluable in winter football, plus this team badly wanted and needed a provincial title.
Likewise, their management team of Jimmy Sice, Eddie Steede, Pat Curley, Brian Silke, and Ger Keane have been involved with football all their lives and none of them is a member of the baby boom. The experience of what is required for the marathon of trying to win an All-Ireland club title has stood them in good stead, and with firm hands on the rudder they will be hopeful of going a few steps further too.
