Difficult to see Corofin slipping up at this stage of the season

IT’S a Connacht club football showdown between the championship’s aristocrats and rookie opposition. A Corofin team chasing a record-breaking tenth provincial title coming up a Roscommon outfit who are complete strangers to this level of competition. On the surface, it looks like a no-contest and that’s how the bookmakers see it too – the reigning All-Ireland champions priced at a prohibitive 1/6 to carry the day.

Certainly, if Corofin rediscover the verve and clinical finishing which stamped their two All-Ireland triumphs in 2018 and last March, Padraig Pearses haven’t a prayer of causing an upset at Tuam Stadium on Sunday, but it’s long odds against Kevin O’Brien’s charges hitting that level of fluency judging on their recent displays at the same venue.

In their last three games at Tuam Stadium, Corofin have been held to a draw in the county final by Tuam Stars; won the replay by just three points; before accounting for Ballintubber by 1-10 to 0-11 in the provincial semi-final. All those games became something of a grind for Ronan Steede and company, rather than exhibitions of swashbuckling football.

Yet, Corofin have always found a way out of trouble in completing a magnificent seven-in-a-row of county titles and also staying on course for a fourth provincial championship on the trot. The last day against Ballintubber, a second-half goal from raiding defender Liam Silke proved decisive, but they still endured some fraught moments as was the case in the two games with Tuam Stars.

Given all that they have won, it’s no surprise that Corofin possess daunting levels of self-believe and inner resolve. They know that they won’t be the ones to blink first in a contest going down to the wire and their reputation is such now that many opposition teams head into the same arena as them more in hope than confidence.

For all that, this Corofin team can’t stay going forever and with Tuam Stadium not a venue which tends to bring the best out of them – at least on recent evidence – they will still have to be mentally switched on for opposition that they have never played before. In some ways, that will help them as the novelty of the fixture may create some extra excitement in their ranks and, generally, that is no bad thing.

For more, read this week’s Connacht 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.