This Sunday the Leinster club final is well worth the trip to Tullamore to see Garrycastle take on Portlaoise at 2pm in what promises to be a top class game.
Garrycastle upset the bookies with their very solid victory over Ballyboden/St Enda’s, 1-08 to 0-6, in the semi-final and Anthony Cunningham will have his charges well revved up to build on that success.
There is no point in winning a semi-final and then losing the final.
He has some very fine players at his disposal and they won’t fear Portlaoise who defeated Clara 1-09 to 0-3 in their replay last Saturday in O’Moore Park.
The star of the show in the game was Paul Cahillane who was once on the books of Glasgow Celtic and the 20-year-old former Irish soccer youth international hit 1-03 and oozed class in their facile win.
He lines out at right-corner forward and his influence needs to be nullified.
Garrycastle will look to players like John Gaffey, Mark McCallan, David O’Shaughnessy, Seanie O’Donoghoe, and James and Dessie Dolan to ease them over the end line and their first Leinster title ever.
A lot of pundits are going for Portlaoise to come out of Leinster once again, however I was very impressed with the work-rate and attitude of the Garrycastle lads against Ballyboden and if they can cut down on their mistakes and take the game to Portlaoise, there is no reason why they cannot seize the day.
Three reasons why Corofin won the Connacht Club final by 13 points:
1 Charlestown were dreadful last Sunday:
Unfortunately for Charlestown who had been having a really good season they produced a nightmare display on their home patch last Sunday.
They were truly awful and looked like a team running on empty.
They were particularly clueless in the first twenty minutes, persisting with a short hand-passing game that had their supporters infuriated in the stand. And once they conceded an early goal, their game plan went out the window and they spent the rest of the day chasing the game.
Tom Parsons had a solid first half and won a lot of kick-outs and Aiden Higgins fought valiantly but they were over-run.
Charlestown’s performance did not reflect positively on the standard of club football in Mayo. If they are the best club side in Mayo in 2009, it made you wonder what extra talent John O’Mahony will have to work with in 2010.
He won’t have needed too many pages to take down any notes on potential new players based on what he saw last Sunday.
2 Corofin’s captain Kieran Comer had a blinder:
Last Sunday Comer looked the “Real-Deal” for Corofin.
Kieran has blown hot and cold over the past decade at both club and county level; however he has still collected All-Ireland medals with the Galway seniors in 2001 and another one with the Galway U21s in 2002 and he has five or six county medals in the cupboard too.
Last weekend was one of his finest displays in a club jersey.
He looked in great shape after a week golfing in Portugal and he is brimful of confidence and notched 1-07 (6fs ). When your captain is in that kind of form, he is an easy man to follow.
In 1998 Comer came on as a late substitute at the tender age of 16 in the All-Ireland club final when Corofin beat Erin’s Isles and he is now only one game away from playing in one as club captain and team leader.
To do so his side will have to beat the hugely impressive St Galls (Antrim ) who hammered The Loup (Derry ) and that will be a tough one. St. Galls are loaded with Antrim seniors and in Aodan Gallagher and Sean Burke they have a particularly solid midfield partnership.
3 Corofin’s pace:
The likes of Tony Goggins, Alan Burke, Gary Sice, Ciaran McGrath, Cathal Silke, Joe Canney, Shane Monaghan, and Ronan Steede are all lively on their pegs. When Corofin ran at the home side and did so with speed and purpose they ran Ciaran McBride’s defence ragged.
A team with greater speed down the flanks will always get in behind you and while Corofin scored 2-14, 4-18 would not have been unrealistic.
