It is quite likely that all the away teams in the first leg of the All-Ireland Club Championship quarter-finals tomorrow will eventually make it through a week later to the last-four stage round-robin series at Belfield on April 29th-May 1st.
Monkstown, bolstered by Turlough O Siochain, will no doubt resist resolutely against Cork C of I at Rathdown but the Munster champions, with Karl Burns as their emerging new playmaker, will be expected to increase the tempo in the return game. Similarly, while Harlequins should improve this weekend on their 3-0 home defeat by Lisnagarvey in the Irish Senior Cup semi-final, their trip to Blaris to take on the Ulster kingpins probably will be a bridge too far.
The other two pairings, though, may well be decided by the most slender margins. Pembroke Wanderers know that they must both contain Banbridge - David McAnulty in particular - and also at least register an away goal at Havelock Park, say by Gordon Elliott.
Glenanne, the fresh Leinster title-holders, in some ways see their all-Ireland engagement with Annadale as a bonus, yet with much the same side last year they played sturdily against Instonians, the eventual winners. Annadale, of course, have contributed to Instonians' eclipse this season and have developed into a much respected team. It remains to be seen if their two leading figures, David Smyth and Chris Jackson, can be matched at Lough Moss tomorrow by Graham Shaw and Stephen Butler, the Ireland under-21 captain who brought home the top marksman's trophy from the Celtic Cup tournament in Tours. As regards scoring exploits, Charlie Carroll registered Trinity's 100th goal of the Leinster league campaign in a 6-1 defeat of Weston on Tuesday and their promotion to the first division will be assured if they beat (or draw with) UCD at Santry tomorrow. Only if UCD were to pull off a surprise win would a playoff be necessary.
:quality(70)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/irishtimes/YVIRIOZQ35EWRPZXR27KGMO6YU.png)