Winners can take all

Sixteen days after their tense duel in the cup semi-final, the top two teams in the men's Superleague, Star of the Sea and Notre Dame, meet on Sunday in a fixture that should decide the championship.

"The match is effectively a league final and I believe that whoever wins will indeed become champions," said Star's coach, Danny Fulton, whose team currently lead their rivals by two points.

Should Star emerge as victors then few would argue with Fulton's assertion, as they would have a four-point lead with only three rounds of matches remaining. However, should Notre Dame win, they would be level on points with Star. If the teams finished level at the end of the season, Notre Dame would win the title on the count-back of points scored in the matches involving the two teams.

In that context, Fulton's statement is entirely credible and he is clearly keen to emphasise it to his players. If Star lose on Sunday it will be the third time this season they have been beaten by their Dublin rivals.

"I don't make excuses for either of the two defeats we've suffered against Notre Dame, but they both happened in the National Arena and they are very hard to beat there," Fulton stressed.

The point is backed up by impressive statistics. In the last 15 months, Notre Dame have won three major knock-out competitions on their home court - the 1996 Roy Curtis International and the 1997 and 1998 National Cup play-offs.

However, their form away from home is also worth noting. Their only league defeat on the road happened in Killester on the first weekend of the New Year and that could be put down to the absence through injury of Anthony Jenkins. The player who eventually deputised, Daniel Johnson, has been a qualified success contributing an average of 15 points per game. In particular, his 19 points in the low-scoring 77-74 cup semi-final win over Star and a solid 16 points in the final, singled him out as player for the big occasion.

Notre Dame have also seen early season fringe players like Albert Corrigan and Eamon Gallagher raise their performance level when their injury crisis struck. In fact, the whole squad has responded to the challenge of losing regular first-five players Jenkins and Darren McGuinness with tremendous self-belief, inspired no doubt by coach Jenkins and his quiet but reassuringly positive urgings.

Notre Dame have proven in their narrow play-off cup wins and their victory last week over Neptune that, if it turns out to be a close game on Sunday, they are always strong at the finish.

Player-for-player, though, Star of the Sea have the strongest looking squad in the country. Their consistency has been more than admirable although their cup semi-final performance poses questions about the ability of their Americans, John Leahy and Chuck Guittar, to produce their best form in a significant game.

To Star's credit, though, they recovered quickly from their cup disappointment to completely over-run Killester last week, showing their very best form. There are two other games at the weekend that could prove decisive in their respective league campaigns. In the men's Division One, Sligo will become champions if they beat second-placed Waterford, while Wildcats will make sure of the women's cup and league double for the first time in their history if they win, as expected, in Limerick.