Battle of All-Ireland champs in opening round of fixtures

IT’S the clash of All-Ireland champions in the first round of the 2020 Galway senior football championship as senior winners Corofin meet intermediate holders Oughterard on the opening weekend in August.

With three groups of four teams and two groups of three in the revised SFC format, Corofin were drawn in one of the latter, where they will face Oughterard and Monivea-Abbey. While it’s a favourable draw for Kevin O’Brien’s charges, it will be a massive game for newly-promoted Oughterard.

No more than Corofin, who became the first club to win three consecutive All-Ireland senior titles earlier this year, Oughterard also had a memorable 2019/2020 season by collecting the national intermediate crown when setting Croke Park alight with a fabulous 2-16 to 0-12 victory over Magheracloone Mitchells of Monaghan in late January.

Galway Football Committee Chairman and proud Oughterard man, Kevin Clancy, will no doubt be keeping a close eye on that battle of All-Ireland champions. “Ah, yeah, but the two teams are on two different ends of the scale,” said Clancy.

“It will be a huge day (for Oughterard) but, with all due respects, I think Corofin would be as happy with us as anybody else. It is great to be able to pit yourself against the best but if we are at that stage or not, who can say?

“Oughterard are happy though because they’re back in senior championship fare for the first time since 2003 and it is great to see. It was a long road back so they are very happy to be in the senior championship now.”

It’s an unique situation to have the senior and intermediate All-Ireland champions, both of which required replays to advance beyond their respective county finals, competing against one another in the same championship but Chairman Clancy remarked that this reflected the work clubs were putting in on the ground.

“So, it’s reflective of the standard of club football we have in Galway. That has come down to the work put in by players, their management teams and the clubs over the years in ensuring that we do have these competitive championships.”

Both Corofin and Oughterard face each other in a three-team group, of which there are two: 4A and 4B. Although there is a team less in these sections, each will still get three games as the teams in both sections will cross-play. The top two teams in each group will fight it out for the right to advance in the championship with the bottom sides playing each other to avoid a relegation battle.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.

Get the Connacht Tribune Live app
The Connacht Tribune Live app is the home of everything that is happening in Galway City and county. It’s completely FREE and features all the latest news, sport and information on what’s on in your area. Click HERE to download it for iPhone and iPad from Apple’s App Store, or HERE to get the Android Version from Google Play.