GAELIC GAMES: SEAN MORANsays Dublin might well rue last Sunday's defeat as Galway and Kilkenny are now closing in on a league final place
WITH JUST two matches remaining this season’s Allianz Hurling League is finely poised but there is still the prospect that it could, like last year, go into the final weekend of regulation matches with the finalists pre-determined.
After Cork and Galway played out the deadest of dead rubbers 12 months ago at a stage when both had already qualified for the final, momentum gathered for the reintroduction of semi-finals to guard against a reoccurrence.
Next weekend sees first playing fourth and second playing third. Both the Galway-Tipperary and Dublin-Kilkenny matches will be critical to the outcome of the competition.
“The league this year, the way it’s structured, you could be out of it every week,” was the accurate summation of Galway’s Tony Regan after the weekend’s win over Dublin. “Every match is very competitive and we’re just happy now that we have a chance to try and progress and that the match against Tipp means something next week.”
Dublin will be bitterly regretting the failure to win on Sunday, which would have placed Anthony Daly’s side in a strong position to contest a first final since losing the replayed 1946 final to Clare.
Should Galway and Kilkenny win, they will contest next month’s final for the first time in 25 years. The counties responsible for winning 22 of the intervening league titles remain in contention for this year’s (only Limerick, 1992 and ’97, and Offaly, 1991, are out of the running).
It is still open for all of the teams apart from Offaly and Wexford to reach the final but Waterford, Cork and Tipperary must win both of their remaining matches and hope that two of the top three slip up.
Although the head-to-head results between counties determines positioning should two sides finish level on points, once there are more than two involved the determining factor is scoring difference.
Relegation remains between Wexford and Offaly but it is Colm Bonnar’s team, promoted just 12 months ago, who will almost certainly take the drop. Defeat by Offaly means Wexford must take three points from the four remaining and hope that Offaly don’t pick up any more.
Division Two was simplified at the weekend to the extent that Laois’s defeat by Down effectively rules them out of contention. They could beat Clare next Saturday but need Ger O’Loughlin’s team also to lose against Carlow. Antrim are two points closer and will have to defeat a so far-unbeaten Limerick in the last match to have a chance even if Clare slip up, as the latter won the head-to-head.
In all likelihood the pre-season consensus that Clare and Limerick would meet in the final will prove well-founded.
At the bottom Westmeath are as good as gone. They will need to beat Carlow next weekend and then Down, provided the latter don’t pick up any points on Sunday when playing Antrim.
Last weekend did clarify the final positions in Divisions Three A and Four. In Three A, Wicklow will meet Derry for the right to contest next season’s Division Two. When the teams met earlier in the month, Wicklow came out on top by a point, 2-15 to 1-17.
Armagh have been relegated to Division Three B, which still has two rounds of fixtures to complete. Mayo are almost certainly going to feature in the final with their opponents coming from Louth, Fingal and Roscommon – all of whom have outstanding matches against each other. Finally, Tyrone and South Down will contest the Division Four final.
