COROFIN will celebrate a third provincial title in four years if they can see off bitter Mayo rivals Castlebar Michels in Sunday’s Connacht final.
The Galway kingpins go into the Tuam Stadium decider on the back of beating Roscommon champions St Brigid’s at the semi-final stage and completing a five in-a-row in their county – they now have a Crossmaglenesque record of eight titles in the past 10 years.
Like Ulster rivals Slaughtneil, Corofin lost out to Kerry’s Munster champions Dr Croke’s last year. The Galway outfit beat Slaughtneil to win the All-Ireland back in 2015 and the clubs could meet in next year’s final if they can come through Sunday’s clashes, the February semi-finals and, in the Connacht champions’ case, a quarter-final against London’s top dogs Fulham Irish.
But St Patrick’s Day remains a long way off and Corofin’s veteran full-back Kieran Fitzgerald says the All-Ireland final hasn’t come into his thinking yet.
“We're not thinking like that,” he said.
“We've played Castlebar three times in the last five years and we played them twice in Tuam and once in Castlebar, they won twice in Tuam and we won in Castlebar.
“Home advantage doesn't seem to matter. I don't think they've any fear of coming down to Tuam to play us.”
Castlebar got the better of Corofin in the 2016 Connacht final and with the likes of Mayo stars Paddy Durcan, Barry Moran and Danny Kirby in their ranks, they’ll be confident of doing the same again on Sunday.
“Their defence is similar to Mayo’s,” Fitzgerald explained.
“They play high up and they are in your face.
“They have a high workrate in the tackle and if we don't match that aggression, they'll turn us over. “With the likes of Paddy Durcan, Eoin O'Reilly, Barry and Danny Kirby they have a number of guys who have been in and out of the Mayo team. Paddy's brother James and Donie Newcombe have been with Mayo for the last two years.
“Their strength and conditioning will be right up there. They're very good at turning you over and Paddy Durcan breaks the line at super speed.”
Fitzgerald, now 37, was called up to the Corofin senior panel a year after the club won the All-Ireland club title for the first time back in 1998 and has been an ever-present since.
“I just missed out on that All-Ireland,” he said.
“The 1999 season would have been my first year and I’ve done 18 years unbroken since.
“I joined the Galway panel soon enough after joining the Corofin panel so I never took to America or anything like that.
“That 1998 win was unbelievable. At that stage it had been 32 years since Galway won the All-Ireland.
“There had been so much heartache for Galway teams going to Croke Park and it would have been the same thing with the club. I remember Connacht teams going up, Salthill, Knockmore and Castlebar and always being beaten.
“It was really new territory for Corofin, for all of us. It gave belief that a Galway team could go to Croke Park and win.”
Fitzgerald’s wife Emer O'Flaherty is the Galway ladies’ captain. Her club, Tuam Cortoon, lost at the All-Ireland semi-final to Aghada last weekend after winning the Connacht junior championship.
Like Fitzgerald (who won his in 2001) Emer has an All-Ireland senior medal but she has two Allstars to his one.
He joked: “She plays full-back too, so I'm not even the best full-back in the house.”
He will wear the number three jersey on Sunday and could come up against Neil Douglas who landed three points as the Mitchels powered past Sligo’s Tourlestrane to make Sunday’s decider.
At the other end of the field, Corofin will look to the talents of inter-county stars like Micheal Lundy and Gary Sice to steer them home alongside talented county hurling star Daithi Burke.
“Daithi had been with the hurlers until the end of September,” Fitzgerald explained.
“He's been training recently, he came back to training two weeks before the county final and he is a super addition.
“He was midfield in 2015 and we're grateful to have him because hurling is his number one sport. “When we do have him, he puts in a super shift, like he did in 2015. Any day we have him is a plus day. Hopefully, we'll have him on Sunday.”
