Corofin and Mountbellew/Moylough favourites to reach county decider

Now that the shadow-boxing of the earlier rounds is out of the way, it’s down to the serious business for the four best teams in the county who battle it out this Sunday for a place in the Galway senior Gaelic football championship final.

Reigning Galway, Connacht and All-Ireland champions, Corofin remain the team to beat as they look for a historic three-in-a-row of titles, a feat that was considered almost a certainty at the beginning of the season. It’s not so clear-cut any longer . . . Corofin’s form has dipped sufficiently in this campaign, and enough chinks in their armour have been exposed, to give the remaining three pretenders to the crown some hope going into semi-final Sunday.

In the first of a double-header at Tuam Stadium (2pm), Cortoon Shamrocks, which has a nice blend of experienced heads and youthful enthusiasm, will look to dethrone the champions at the penultimate stage. Corofin last came a cropper at the semi-final in 2012 so you could argue that now is the opportune time to meet them. But then again they hockeyed Milltown in the semi-final last year, and they have the quality to cut loose again.

A North Galway derby, Cortoon v Corofin should get the crowd to Tuam early before the mouth-watering clash between Salthill/Knocknacarra and Mountbellew/Moylough (4.15pm) in the other semi-final.

This one should be intriguing, not least because the manager of the city men is Mountbellew’s Val Daly, whose two sons, Michael and John Daly, will be lining out for Mountbellew/Moylough. Oh to be a fly on the wall in the Daly household this week!

Sunday

Corofin v Cortoon Shamrocks (Tuam Stadium, 2.30pm)

The Corofin statistics in the county championship since they were last defeated are savage. They are unbeaten in 14 games since the last occasion they suffered county championship defeat, which was against Tuam in the semi-final of 2012. They have won 13 of those games, and drawn once against the Stars before winning the replay earlier this month.

What a record. They are also unbeaten in the league this season (seven wins); and were unbeaten in last year’s league, too.

Cortoon are not without hope, though. Corofin are more vulnerable this year compared with the previous two – they are a long-time on the road, and have lost that invincible look.

They are scoring less, too, managing just 1-10 on average per match compared with 2-15 on average per game in the local championship in 2013, and nearly 3-13 on average per game in their march to county glory in 2014. Corofin are conceding more compared to those two years. They have conceded 4-34 in the campaign to date, compared with 3-36 in the five games in the 2013 championship and just 1-31over five games played in 2014.

Manager Stephen Rochford hasn’t had a full squad to pick from but is close to full strength now. Greg Higgins returned to the fray against Tuam, and while he aggravated a niggly injury, the midfielder is pushing for a starting berth, as is Ian Burke and Daithi Burke, who both came off the bench the last day. Conor Cunningham is back from US and in contention to start and long-term absentee Joe Canney (groin) is on the mend.