GAA: The biggest weekend of the GAA's summer takes place over the next two days with 14 senior championship fixtures to be decided. Pride of place goes to the two provincial finals tomorrow with most attention focused on the Munster hurling final in Thurles, which brings together Limerick and Waterford for the first time at this level since the GAA's golden jubilee year in 1934.
Given the state of panic in Limerick concerning tickets it was surprising that a small number for the Killinan End terrace became available yesterday afternoon on the GAA website.
"There's not many of them and no guarantee that they'll still be there in the morning," according to Munster PRO Willie O'Connor, who confirmed that all other sections of the ground have sold out. The Killinan End is the Waterford terrace for tomorrow with Limerick followers at the Town End.
Waterford will be looking to add a third Munster title in six years to the National Hurling League they won for the first time in 44 years two months ago. Their powerful, fast and frequently exhilarating play has made them a neutral's choice to win the All-Ireland and they will be anxious to optimise their chances by winning Munster and in the longer term ensure an easier draw in the All-Ireland quarter-finals later this month.
Limerick have been central players in the most compelling story of the summer, the three-match semi-final saga with Tipperary. "We're expecting huge crowds to travel," said Limerick PRO Denis O'Carroll. "The hype here has been tremendous and there's a fantastic atmosphere. We haven't won Munster since 1996 and everyone's greatly looking forward to it."
Under the management of one of the members of the last team to win the All-Ireland in 1973, Richie Bennis, Limerick have reached a first provincial final since losing to Tipperary in 2001. The only blot on a memorable campaign to date is the absence of team captain Damien Reale who was concussed in the third semi-final match. "We were hoping against hope," said Bennis. "The medical theory was that he wouldn't be back. Damien was very down when we told him that he wasn't playing but our team doctor, Dave Boylan, had to make the call, on advice from a higher authority.
"Damien's a huge loss - he's a hard man to replace but we're lucky enough to have cover. He's an inspirational player and naturally, he's very dejected. He was so looking forward to leading out his county in a Munster final."
Hyde Park Roscommon stages the Connacht football final between Galway and Sligo on what will be a busy weekend for the venue, which this afternoon sees the Mayo footballers attempt to revive their season against Cavan in the All-Ireland qualifiers. Galway surprised many with the force and quality of their performance in eliminating last year's All-Ireland finalists Mayo back in May. The semi-final win over Leitrim was tighter and more prosaic but Peter Ford's team are hot favourites to regain the provincial title they held just two years ago.
Sligo were impressive in their semi-final, recovering from six points down to defeat Roscommon but they'll have it all to do if a third Connacht championship and a first since 1975 is to be won tomorrow.
Today sees the start of the All-Ireland football qualifiers, which have been rationalised down to three rounds this year with the eight Division Four teams consigned to the Tommy Murphy Cup, which also begins in earnest today.
The big match this evening is Meath's visit to Down. Shane O'Rourke makes his first start for Meath. The counties haven't met in championship since the All-Ireland final of 1991 when O'Rourke's father, Colm, came off the bench and despite suffering from a viral infection, nearly turned the match around. Down won to initiate the sequence of Ulster wins that has made the province the most successful in football during the intervening years.
Pick of the hurling qualifiers is Ger Loughnane's return to Ennis as manager of Galway. The eccentric former Clare manager created a stir in an interview with this week's Clare Champion during which he was critical both of his former captain and recent Clare manager Anthony Daly and the county's chair, Michael McDonagh. For his part McDonagh called on the home crowd in an anticipated sell-out attendance of 23,000 to give Loughnane a warm welcome on his return.
Finally Clare will be able to field Brendan Bugler despite yesterday's news that the player and some of his University of Limerick colleagues would not pursue to the Supreme Court their application for an injunction against a GAA disciplinary hearing that might have suspended Bugler for 12 weeks. On Thursday the GAA had UL's temporary injunction lifted but announced yesterday that despite being free to do so, the association's Higher Education Authority would not be conducting the hearing until early next week, leaving the player free for this evening's game.
DONEGAL(SFC v Leitrim): P Durcan; N McGee, P Campbell, K Lacey; F McGlynn, B Monaghan, P McConigley; N Gallagher, K Cassidy; M Murphy, M Hegarty, R Kavanagh; K McMenamin, R Bradley, B Devenney.
