All set for another intriguing battle

We have a four crucial qualifiers this weekend, with the key of the door to the Super 8 on offer and, thanks to the GAA gods, we have a Leinster hurling final replay between Kilkenny and Galway in Thurles.

I’ve taken to calling that province the ‘rest of Ireland hurling championship’ and the trip to Tipp cements that. By the way, of course there was nothing wrong with bringing this replay to Semple Stadium, it is probably a more suitable venue than Croke Park!

The football championship finally took off last weekend, ironically with the loss of the most romantic county currently playing the game, Mayo.

As usual they went down bravely, dying in the heat with their boots on. This was a feature of a couple of other games too, my own county, Clare, twice the victims of late wilting in the sun.

I think we’ll see more of this as the heatwave stretches into next week and beyond. When the legs go in these unprecedented conditions, as Mayo’s undoubtedly did, that second wind never comes.

I saw occasional water breaks in the games I was at, but we might have to think about introducing them as official timeouts.

They’ll be needed in Thurles for sure when Galway and Kilkenny lock horns once again. Having rewatched the game I have come to the conclusion that both of these outlasted each other in Croke Park on Sunday last.

Kilkenny have done the rest of the country and possibly themselves no favours by drawing the game. Stay with me here.

The losers on Sunday, quite possibly the Cats, will only have seven days to get ready for a Limerick side that will have sharpened up on Saturday night against Carlow.

The losers of this replay will be playing three weekends on the trot and that is not a lucky stat for teams to date in this hurling championship.

Cork, Tipperary, Waterford, Limerick, Kilkenny and Wexford have all failed to win on their third week out in succession. Only Galway have managed it and that by a single point in a dead rubber against Dublin.

So Sunday’s losers will have a mountain to climb physically as well as the psychological damage inflicted by losing a final replay. Public opinion has Kilkenny in that dilemma but I’m not so sure.

The Tribesmen were due a flat performance and if this was it, they picked the perfect day and result.

They didn’t lose, if they had they were still in the championship. Conventional wisdom has it that the day to catch them might have been in the last four. Typical Brian Cody, he ruined it for the rest of us!

Room for improvement

The theory doing the rounds in the immediate aftermath of Sunday was that Galway have more improvement in them. The forwards were sluggish, they didn’t create or flow for any length of the game.

That may be so but seven days and a now clearly rejuvenated Kilkenny don’t do theories. They just play. I think this goes to the wall on Sunday. With Limerick just a week removed the stakes got a lot higher too.

If Galway are the real deal they shut down TJ, score goals (some of them early) and Joe reminds us that he is the reincarnation of Ring, Keher and Doyle – the greatest hurler of his generation.

My gut feeling, however, is that this game will not be as tight as the drawn encounter, this will open up. And some of the newer Kilkenny lights like Richie Leahy, James Maher, maybe Billy Ryan find their championship sea legs a lot quicker.

The real danger signs for Galway is the form of the Cats rearguard. Paddy Deegan, Paul Murphy, Padraig Walsh and Cillian Buckey all displayed the Black and Amber attitude of old, the kind Tyrell, Tommy Walsh and JJ brought to every contest. Such men are hard to capsize.

The winners on Sunday are potentially the (new) All-Ireland favourites.

The physical toll for teams playing week on week in this heat will really be felt by Carlow and Westmeath who are laid out as cannon fodder for Wexford and Limerick to warm up for more inviting quarter finals a week after.

Qualifier action

All four weekend football matches meanwhile have the potential to be tight, a pre-requisite these days for watching the code! And their stakes are high too.

Roscommon, out of the limelight since the Connacht football final, are back in action in the first of a qualifier double header in Portlaoise on Sunday.

The Rossies haven’t played in three weeks, an eternity in this year’s championship while Armagh are on a back door roll, having come back from the dead against Clare last Saturday. Kieran McGeeney’s redemption will have reached its course if Armagh are in the Super 8. This is the game that gets them there.

The 5pm offering at the same venue is another tasty one. The Red Hand against the Rebels, one in white, one in red. There is hope for the beaten Munster finalists, they’re not playing Kerry and Tyrone do not look like the side that marched through Ulster last summer.

Cork football is more at the roundabout stage than the crossroads these days. There have been signs of scoring progress, but the Kingdom burst the balloon that was blown up during their demolition of Tipperary.

A team as fragile as Cork should be meat and drink to Tyrone, but they didn’t set the world alight against Cavan on Saturday either. If they haven’t put the Rebels away by the 50 minute mark then the few fans that will travel from Leeside will have something to cheer about. Any Cork team that grows in confidence during a game is a threat. This could be the game of the weekend.

Lillywhites vulnerable?

The Kildare renaissance moves to Navan on Saturday, where underdogs Fermanagh await. Expect a game here too as the Lillywhites suffer a little anti-climax after their Mayo heroics, while Fermanagh attempt to get the Ulster final no show out of their system. I have a hunch this is the most likely shock of the four games.

For a reason that isn’t obvious Laois and Monaghan meet on Sunday back in Navan. The Ulster side got back on the bike with a nice run-out against Leitrim last weekend, a 13 point winning stroll. This will be closer but the same result.

We’ll have our Super 8 by the close of the weekend. Then the real fun can start. That can’t come soon enough.

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Banner ready to storm the Rebels