By Pádraic Ó Ciardha

DEFENDING champions Corofin have been given a tough start to the 2024 senior football title race as they were drawn alongside Tuam Stars, Claregalway and Oughterard in the most difficult-looking group of this year’s competition.

Preparations for the club football championships stepped up another notch during the week as clubs found out who they will be facing in the men’s senior, intermediate and primary junior competitions.

Having dumped their neighbours out of last year’s championship on the way to claiming another crown, Corofin are quickly closing in on Tuam Stars at the top of the Galway senior football roll of honour with 22 titles to their name, compared to Tuam’s 25. It’s now 30 years since the Stars last got their hands on the Frank Fox Cup, during which time Corofin have amassed a truly remarkable 17 titles.

Corofin, Tuams Stars and Claregalway filled the top three places on the Division 1 football league table this year and while you might think that would leave Oughterard under pressure to get out of Group 3, the westerners have shown fine form themselves during the spring/early summer, topping Division 2 and going unbeaten in their seven round robin games.

Sixteen teams will compete in the senior grade in 2024, having been whittled down from 20 over the past number of years. The new format will be familiar to anyone who has been following Galway’s fortunes in the All-Ireland football championship over the last couple of years and sees teams placed into four groups of four with the top three in each group progressing to the knockout rounds.

The top team in each group after three games will qualify automatically for the quarter finals while the four second-placed teams will be drawn against the four third-placed teams in a preliminary quarter-final round.

Relegation is thankfully a lot more streamlined than last year with just one team facing the drop to intermediate. The four bottom-placed teams in each group will face-off in two relegation semi-finals with the losers of each facing each other in a straight shootout to maintain their senior status.

Pictured: Moycullen’s James McLaughlin is surrounded by Corofin’s Dylan McHugh, Brian Cogger, Patrick Egan and Dylan Wall during last year’s Galway senior football final at Pearse Stadium.