The All-Ireland SHC Round 1 qualifier draw was made this morning and it threw up the following match-ups:
Dublin v Laois
Kilkenny v Limerick
Offaly v Waterford
Tipperary v Westmeath
Here’s 5 talking points to discuss following the draw.
1. No humdinger
HEAVYWEIGHTS TIPPERARY, KILKENNY and Waterford were all kept apart in today’s draw and that trio, plus Dublin, will be heavily fancied to advance to the next round.
The draw may not have thrown up a humdinger clash, but it did guarantee that after this week we’ll have enticing games for the rest of the summer.
Waterford and Tipperary will be expected to easily account for Offaly and Westmeath respectively. Kilkenny-Limerick is the most intriguing encounter, while Dublin should have too much for Laois.
Just two teams will emerge from the qualifiers to face the losers of the provincial finals in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
2. Waterford and Tipperary handed chance to recover
Both Waterford and Tipperary have been afforded the chance to rediscover their form with ties against Division 1B opposition on Saturday.
Waterford have been handed a reprieve with a trip to take on Offaly. It’s a good opportunity for the Deise to rebuild some confidence following their Munster semi-final loss to Cork.
Tipperary haven’t played a competitive game since their defeat to the Rebels on 21 May, and they’ll be glad to get back into action this weekend. The rumour mill went into overdrive in the Premier County following their shock exit from the Munster SHC, and this clash against Westmeath offers Michael Ryan’s side the chance to put all that nonsense behind them.
Derek McGrath takes his charges into the backdoor for the first time since his debut campaign of 2014 and the game will see Faithful boss Kevin Ryan managing against his native county. It’s a first ever hurling championship meeting between Tipperary and Westmeath.
3. Tough draw for Limerick
The tie of the round is undoubtedly the meeting of Limerick and Kilkenny. Having lost two competitive games in-a-row, it’s reasonable to expect a sting in the tail of the Cats this weekend.
It’s the first clash between these counties since the epic rain-soaked 2014 All-Ireland semi-final, when Kilkenny edged through by 2-13 to 0-17. Wexford’s thrilling win in the Leinster semi-final will give Limerick hope that an upset is possible.
Like Wexford, John Kiely’s Limerick are a young, coming team littered with talented U21s. There are a number of selection issues facing Brian Cody and it’ll be very interesting to see how many changes he makes from the last day out in Wexford Park.
4. Laois hamstrung by injuries
If they weren’t down so many bodies, Laois would be expected to give this young Dublin team a stern examination. The reality is they’re likely to be without John Lennon, Cha Dwyer, Willie Dunphy and Picky Maher through injury, while Ross King is suspended for the game.
The high-profile absentees from the Dublin panel have been well-documented at this point, but a full-strength Laois would fancy their chances against the Metropolitans.
Despite all the stench surrounding Dublin hurling of late, Ger Cunningham’s young guns should come through this with plenty to spare.
5. Five-day turnaround
There have been some grumblings in the hurling community in the past week over the decision to delay the draw until this morning. The Carlow-Laois preliminary round game had to be played first as the latter couldn’t be drawn against Westmeath if they won, but the former could.
Still the eight teams involved only learned of their opponents five days out from the games, giving them very little time to tactically prepare.
Given the level of detail that goes into developing gameplans in the modern game and the ‘last chance’ nature of these ties, such a short turnaround is far from ideal.
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Great idea,, much easier to walk out before the final whistle,,, à la last year…;)
@devils avacado: have you ever considered eating yourself, serious question?
It works very well on hill 16 except when the GAA over sell it . Keep the numbers right shouldn’t be a problem when social distancing regulations are relaxed
Has to be a safe option for this season anyway
Money money money
@The Irish Pain: more money where?
I suppose if the fans are standing up it’s harder for them to fall asleep watching a shite team .
@Ger Martin: great team at Anfield these days and its still ynwa for 2 mins at the start and 2 mins at the end and nothing in between. Yawn
@Ger Martin: Why do you devote so much energy into hating an English team that you have no geographical connection to?
@Mossy: relax lenny, don’t see anyone questioning your simpsons character/profile pic!
@Mossy: you know Ger personally do you ? It was a joke. Lighten up. It was of a better quality then the like of the ‘loserpool’ stuff on here. Nobody Monday a decent or semi decent joke.
@Brian Dunne: if you believe that then I guess you’re the type of fan who watches highlights on youtube and just reads the headlines to stay in the loop trying to be cool.
@King B: nah its common knowledge.
@Brian Dunne: oh right, well if that is truly the case then at least the fans are there for the last two minutes compared to other fair weather, submissive, prawn sandwich eating fans.
@King B: yeah yeah. Sorry, pool fans are the most sooper dooper fans in the world. Happy?
@Brian Dunne: not entirely, you forgot the part where you say man u fans are the worst.
@King B: correct,sorry. I forgot about that time united fans behaviour led to a European ban on all english teams. Oh wait….
@Brian Dunne: typical man u fan, always blowing on about history….
@King B: typical pool fan,try to rewrite history….
@Brian Dunne: now where did I suggest that?
Our future is positive, that’s the way I’m looking you can stay in the distant past if you’d like.
@King B: yeah the pool fans love forgetting certain things from the past when it suits them. Can’t be taking away from the “best fans in the world” image now can we?
@Brian Dunne: I wasn’t even born sham so how I could possibly remember it?
Let’s talk about the present and try and drag yourself out of the past.
your skummy fans singing songs about Hillsborough every chance they get?
Ever heard of Icj or the m58 firm?
Drug and people traffickers, armed robbers and they’re all hooligans involved in the ‘red army’. That’s what man u fans are up to today. Skum of the earth.
@King B: your lot were quite happy singing munich songs for years before Hillsborough. Some still sing about it. Robbing tickets off each other in athens. Heysel. Lovely lot.
@Brian Dunne: are you still talking about events in the past?
@King B: or we can talk about more recent behaviour like attacking opponents team busses. Throwing excrement in cups at old trafford. Damaging seats and toilets at old trafford. Lovely lot. Salt of the earth
@Brian Dunne: stuff was thrown at a bus, no fans no where have ever done that before. there’s books and newspaper articles to back up my point about your fans being criminals. Do you’ve any for your claims?
@King B: everything i mentioned was documented either online or in newspapers. Every club has a bad elememt following them. But liverpool fans like to put themselves on a pedestal and think they are better than everyone else when the truth is very different
@Brian Dunne: I googled searched and searched and found nothing to those claims. I’ve nothing better to be doing so it was a solid search.
No we don’t, just because you say we do doesn’t make it true.
Nice sly dig about Hillsborough there too, see skum.. We know the truth.
@King B: what sly dig about Hillsborough you absolute melt??
Have the local council nothing better to be doing at the moment!!??