CorofinÕs walking wounded benefit from postponement

FRANK FARRAGHER

COROFIN mightn’t have been happy campers shortly after 9am last Sunday as the team bus passed Oranmore and word came through that their match against St. Gall’s of Antrim was off due to snow, but the extra week has delivered a real bonus payment for the Galway and Connacht champions.

Three Corofin players – ruled out last Sunday because of injury problems – are now back in hot contention for places in the starting line-up for the re-fixed All-Ireland club semi-final at Parnell Park, Dublin, on Saturday evening (7.30).

Cathal Silke, Gary Delaney and Ronan Steede are all back in full training this week – they will give Gerry Keane and his selectors a very welcome quandary when they sit down to pick the starting line-up for their clash with the Ulster club champions.

Management are looking at everything from scratch, as they prepare for the Gall’s match on the basis that the team picked last week ‘was just for last weekend’ – apart from the long term injury to Michael Comer, Corofin now have a full hand to pick from.

The setting of a Saturday evening match is quite different, especially with the floodlights dimension but Corofin are no strangers to this scenario, with their own club having invested heavily a few years back in a state-of-the-art lighting system for their home ground.

There is though some disgruntlement from a club point of view at the Saturday evening timing of the match – they would have preferred an afternoon fixture to make life easier for family travel and especially parents bringing young children to the match.

That general gripe apart though, the Corofin team are eagerly looking forward to the task at hand, and manager Gerry Keane is satisfied but cautious in the build-up to the match.

“St. Gall’s are a very strong side and they have an incredible record in Antrim while their wins in the Ulster club championship told its own story about their ability and commitment.

“If anything, I would say that they are a physically stronger side than us and probably a bit more experienced too. They haven’t been made favourites for nothing and we have to respect their achievements both this season and over recent years,” said Keane.

However the Corofin manager is ‘delighted’ to have the trio of Cathal Silke, Gary Delaney and Ronan Steede back to fitness, a returns which gives management both a lot more ‘starting’ permutations, and also sideline options as the match progresses.

“We are sitting down to pick the team this week on a clean sheet basis. Last weekend was last weekend and as things transpired the game didn’t go ahead but really we have no other option but to re-assess and look again at the new scenario,” said Keane.

The manager is ultra-cautious about making any prediction over Saturday’s encounter other than to call it as ‘50-50’ but one senses that Corofin are razor keen to give this one a real go.

They’re not used to losing that much out in Cummer, Ballinderry and Belclare country – last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kilmacud Crokes still cuts deeply. Many of the team felt afterwards that they just hadn’t done themselves justice on the day.

With Kieran Fitzgerald back in the blocks after a lot of injury problems, Corofin have a very strong defence right through from consistent ‘keeper David Morris to centre back Damien Burke.Corofin’s biggest task might be in getting at least a 50-50 break in midfield from the pairing of Aidan Donnellan and Greg Higgins against a physically powerful St. Gall’s duo of Seán Burke and Aodhán Gallagher.

But Corofin, to plunder some rugby terminology, are good ‘on the breakdown’. As a team unit, they are great ‘moppers up’ of loose possession – especially on the fringes of midfield – where the likes of Gary Sice, Tony Goggins, Alan Burke and Ciaran McGrath are always very sharp.

With Joe Canney, Kieran Comer and Alan O’Donovan likely to be hovering around the full forward line, Corofin are not short on firepower up front and there is a sneaky feeling there that this attacking division can score a lot more on a ‘good day’.

Corofin, as might be expected, are sounding all the proper notes of caution in the run-up to this match and a really tight game does look in prospect, but given a fine evening and a fairy dry sod, Keane’s side will be determined to leave Parnell Park on Saturday night with different emotions to the ones they had this time last year as they trooped off Mullingar’s Cusack Park with heads down.