Following Corofin’s facile 4-14 to 2-6 demolition of St. Mary’s (Sligo ) last weekend at Markievicz Park, and Castlebar Mitchels impressive 3-8 to 0-13 victory over Clann na nGael at Hyde Park, the sides will meet in the Connacht club senior final in Tuam Stadium (2pm ) on November 22.
Corofin’s full-forward Martin Farragher was their key man in the scoring stakes and he hit a terrific 3-2 (0-1f ) in an eye-catching display. Martin is a real live wire of a forward and it would be great to see him in the county colours at some stage next season.
Galway player Michael Lundy who is expected to be heading Stateside for 2016, also produced a top class display, as did his forward colleague Ian Burke and midfielder Ronan Steede.
The All-Ireland champions led by nine points, 2-3 to 0-0, after only 15 minutes and the writing was on the wall for the Sligo men.
Corofin could even afford not to start new Galway All-Star hurler Daithí Burke and their strength in depth was emphasised by the fact that two of last year’s All-Ireland winning side Greg Higgins and Cathal Silke were not even on the starting fifteen, and came on as subs.
No doubt competition for starting places for the Connacht final will be fever pitch at training for the next week or so and Stephen Rochford, the only nominee for the Mayo manager’s job will have some tough calls to make.
The Corofin panel and management team will know that there will be a massive step up in standard in ten days’ time as Castlebar are a really solid and formidable outfit with some top players such as Mayo stars Barry Moran, Tom Cunniffe and the very impressive wing-back, Paddy Durcan who was a key player in last Sunday’s win producing some great leadership when it was needed most.
Richie Feeney, Danny Kirby, Eoghan O’ Reilly, Shane Hopkins, Alan Feeney and Neil Douglas are also quality performers and they beat Corofin in the Connacht championship two years ago.
It promises to be an epic encounter and one to really look forward to.
The fact that the game clashes with the Galway senior county hurling final on the same day at Pearse Stadium is very disappointing and means that genuine GAA supporters of both codes in the county have to make a choice between two top class live games.
