The best-quality AIB club championship weekend this season features action in the three provinces still unresolved - Ulster having completed both hurling and football finals. Tomorrow in Walsh Park, Waterford (although weather has raised the prospect of the venue being switched to Dungarvan), a celebrity-laden Munster hurling semi-final brings together the champions of Clare and Waterford, Clarecastle and Ballygunner.
Both come to the contest with impressive credentials. Ballygunner reached last year's final and were narrowly beaten by Clarecastle's predecessors Wolfe Tones. Their team is little changed and includes well-known county players, Paul Flynn, Stephen Frampton and Fergal Hartley, who has been outstanding for the Waterford champions in recent times. Only two weeks ago, he gave an immense display as Ballygunner saw off the challenge of Cork champions Sarsfields.
On the same afternoon, Clarecastle regained the county title for the first time in three years with a patchily sufficient performance against St Joseph's Doora-Barefield. Their inter-county contingent is as numerically impressive as Ballygunner's and qualitatively more so.
In defence Anthony Daly is his usually authoritative self, predictably for a player whose motivation levels rarely fluctuate, Fergie Tuohy weighed in with a crucial piece of damage-limitation against Sean McMahon, and if Sparrow O'Loughlin was uncharacteristically anonymous in the county final, he was only just back - in a damp Ennis - from honeymoon in Acapulco or some such Mexican hotspot.
The team's back-up is impressive with O'Loughlin's brother, and former Clare hurler, Victor at centrefield, current panellist Alan Neville in attack and one-time county lynchpin Stephen Sheedy at centre back. There are a couple of reasons for suspecting that Clarecastle can maintain the county's upper hand over Ballygunner.
Last year Wolfe Tones won the Munster final in the first half. Although the Shannon side's attack wouldn't have been regarded as a high-scoring unit, it showed clinical efficiency in punishing lapses in the Ballygunner defence and a minute into the second half were 12 points clear.
There's no reason to believe that Clarecastle won't be as retributive in similar circumstances but plenty of reason to suggest that they would be sterner in repelling the comeback that brought the Waterford team to within a point, 4-8 to 4-9, by the final whistle.
Paul Flynn was the central figure, scoring 2-4. He is likely to be marked by Ger Canny, the former O'Callaghan's Mills player whose arrival has given the defence greater solidity and who will be expected to shadow effectively the Ballygunner dangerman.
Hartley may be the powerhouse of a strong half-back line and Clarecastle's half forwards aren't the most persuasive unit of the team, but no centre back has been as dominant in club hurling as Sean McMahon in Clare and his influence on the county final was more restrained than up to that point.
This match should be close, but with a competitive centrefield, a better balanced defence and a full forward line, where O'Loughlin and the dependable Ken Ralph should take scores, Clarecastle get the nod to become the third successive Clare club to eliminate Ballygunner and so take a further step down the road to emulating Sixmilebridge's much-envied All-Ireland success of two years ago.
Leinster stages its football semi-finals at two separate venues, Parnell Park and Navan. Kildare champions Clane take on Rathnew of Wicklow at the Dublin venue in the more appealing match. Rathnew overcame the adversity of not making home advantage count in Aughrim and won a heated replay in Navan last weekend.
Few clubs left in the championship in either code can have as heavy a senior inter-county presence as Clane. From John Finn at full back, through Martin Lynch and Brian Murphy, up to Paul McLoughlin and the McCormack brothers (Eddie, although injured in a horse-riding accident, is named on the team) in attack, the club have impressive reserves.
John Courtney, manager of Carlow Eire Og and formerly in charge of Sarsfields, is well familiar with Kildare football. He believes that Clane's most important asset this year is a much improved attitude. "Two years ago, leading by seven points, they lost in the last 10 minutes to Eire Og who were two men short. They usedn't take the Leinster championship that seriously, but they were so embarrassed by that defeat that this year has been different."
A thumping win over Moate brings Clane to within two matches of winning the county's first provincial club title since Raheens in the early 1980s. By tomorrow evening, they should be one match closer.
In the other semi-final, Erin's Isle get the chance to prove that the close call against Edenderry was not reflective of their overall challenge for the title. JJ O'Keeffe is suspended after getting the line and a month's suspension in that match, but shaken out of any complacency, they should have enough in hand to head off Stabannon, who made hard work of Longford's Fr Manning Gaels.
Munster's second football semi-final is between Cooraclare of Clare and Tipperary champions Fethard. Although the former's title win was unexpected they have knuckled down to the provincial championship. Clare PRO, Des Crowe makes the point that had Doonbeg come out of the county, they would be hot favourites to win. Even allowing for this imbalance in experience, Cooraclare look likely.
In Connacht, the replay between Allen Gaels and Tourlestrane has tilted towards the Sligo representatives. The drawn match in Carrick-on-Shannon showed the Leitrim champions to be a little short of firepower. Although they scored two goals, Allen Gaels managed only two more points and the visitors generally had the better of the exchanges. Now with home advantage, Tourlestrane will be expected to make certain the second time around.
