Sice says St Vincent's defeat is warning to all big clubs
November 14, 2017
Corofin's Gary Sice and Niall McInerney of St Brigid's during their side's Connacht club SFC final at Pairc Sean Mac Diarmada, Carrick-on-Shannon.
©INPHO/James Crombie.
By Daragh Small
Galway forward Gary Sice say the shock defeat of St Vincent's is a warning to the rest of the big teams left in this year's All-Ireland club championship.
Sice kicked four points for Corofin as they saw off St Brigid's after extra-time in the Connacht semi-final on Sunday at Tuam.
The 2015 All-Ireland champions and reigning Connacht champions will now face Castlebar Mitchels in the provincial final at Tuam Stadium on Sunday week (November 26).
St Vincent's defeated Castlebar in the All-Ireland final in 2014 and after the Dublin champions were dumped out of Leinster by Rathnew on Sunday, the 33-year-old says it shows how unpredictable the club championship can be.
"With St Vincent's losing it goes to show you what can happen in winter football. This is the toughest competition," said Sice.
"When you go away from home like that you need to be absolutely on song and obviously they got caught out against the Wicklow champions. It's a good warning for the rest of the country.
"And for us, Castlebar have put three county titles back to back and they are as strong as any team in Ireland at the moment.
"We will have to bring something a lot better than what we showed against St Brigid's."
Having claimed a five-in-a-row of Galway titles when they beat Mountbellew-Moylough, Corofin are now just 70 minutes away from an eighth Connacht crown.
They won the province in 2014 and '16 and lost 2-10 to 0-11 in the intervening year against Castlebar in the final.
But after losing last year's All-Ireland semi-final against eventual champions Dr Crokes from Kerry, Sice says Corofin are determined to topple a good side in the Connacht final.
"It was winter football at its best and you expect that from St Brigid's. All of the them lads have won an All-Ireland title, we knew that they were going to come with something big and they did," said Sice.
"We have met some good teams this summer and responded. We are starting to get our gallop up again. We are going to need every bit of it when we go to take on Castlebar."
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