Champions Corofin can complete the three-in-a-row

Date Published: 13-Oct-2010

FRANK FARRAGHER

THE toing and froing over the selection of the new Galway manager is over and even if it has left a little legacy of unease amongst ‘the faithful’, the focus is very much local this weekend when Killererin and Corofin battle it out for the 2010 senior championship title at Pearse Stadium (4pm).

Most neutrals at the start of the season would probably settle for the pairing of Corofin and Killererin as being the most intriguing to shape up to each other on final day with both parishes having deeply embedded roots in the GAA.

Both also believe that they can win any final they play in.They are neighbouring parishes straddled each side of the Ballyglunin railway line with oceans of local, parish and North Galway pride at stake any time they meet.

Both clubs have bagged county titles over recent years and even if Corofin travel to Salthill with the favourites tag on their backs, Killererin will also go west full of confidence.It does seem a little incongruous that two clubs bordering Tuam should be travelling west of the Corrib for this final and maybe if there is a lesson to be learnt from this, it is that venues should not be set in stone months in advance.

That said, Pearse Stadium offers a pitch close to Thurles perfection and with a reasonably benign weather forecast for the weekend, both sides will not have any complaints about the stage setting. The double billing with the intermediate final should also help to draw a decent crowd to the Salthill venue.

Killererin might fancy the slightly tighter confines of Tuam Stadium to try and curb the overall mobility of Corofin but Tommie Joyce’s charges have tasted county final victory at the Salthill venue — the place won’t harbour any ghosts for them.

Corofin are bidding to secure a three-in-a-row of county final victories for the first time — something which hasn’t been achieved since the great Tuam Stars outfit of the late 1950s — but that tangent of history won’t log into the mindsets of Gerry Keane’s men on Sunday.