SATURDAY 22 JUNE
All-Ireland SHC quarter-finals
Dublin v Cork, FBD Semple Stadium, 1.15pm
Clare v Wexford, FBD Semple Stadium, 3.15pm
ONLINE
Live blogs on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app. Highlights also available across the weekend.
TV
Both games live on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player from 12.45pm. Highlights on The Saturday Game, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, 10.50pm.
RADIO
Live commentary and updates on RTÉ Radio 1’s on Saturday Sport and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Spórt an tSathairn.
WEATHER
Some bright spells in east Munster at first but mostly cloudy on Saturday. Patchy light rain or drizzle will spread from the west during the morning and early afternoon. There will be patches of hill and coastal fog also but drier brighter intervals will spread from the west during the evening. Top temperatures of 16 to 20 degrees Celsius in light to moderate south-westerly winds.
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There are two tasty encounters on the menu this weekend, well, Saturday, as the hurling championship gets down to the sharp end (‘business’ would not be appropriate for an amateur game).
Hurling may be unique among sports in having quarter-finals with less than eight teams and, to paraphrase the Spice Girls, six will become four by this evening.
It wouldn’t be a GAA championship summer without some sort of administrative outrage and it is the matches being on Saturday – rather the traditional prime-time Sunday afternoon slot, which has been reserved for the Tailteann Cup semi-finals – that has caused a stir this week, though that was also the case in 2022 and ’23.
Shane McGrath doubted whether the All-Ireland SFC quarters would be played on a Saturday to keep the Sunday spotlight on hurling’s second-tier competition (the Joe McDonagh Cup) and Dónal Óg Cusack suggested that RTÉ would rather show the hurling quarters on Sundays.
.@MartyMofficial reports as the scheduling of Saturday afternoon’s All-Ireland hurling fixtures is met with criticism pic.twitter.com/3jWMqOL4Px
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) June 21, 2024
Arguably as big an issue tomorrow are the thrown-in times. It’s hard to imagine the 1.15pm throw-in at Semple Stadium for Dublin-Cork not affecting supporters from those counties, while Wexford fans are incensed that their game with Clare is clashing with the Division 1 finals of the Féile na nGael.
The Model County are hosting 500 of the country’s best Under-15s hurling and camogie players at their Centre of Excellence in Ferns and a proposal to swap the quarter-finals with the Tailteann semis narrowly failed at Central Council (57.4% in favour), with their opponents on Saturday among the 20 votes opposing the switch.
Former Kilkenny star Jackie Tyrrell told the RTÉ GAA Podcast that he was “hugely disappointed” in Clare’s U-turn.
“They supported it initially and then when it came to a vote, I’m led to believe they voted against it.
“What we’re saying to the people of Wexford, the volunteers who give up their time and help with their clubs, is ‘You’re doing all this great work but we’re actually going to penalise you, you can’t go to this huge game because you’re caught up in Féile.
“That is wrong on so so many levels.”
The football Féile is on next weekend in Mayo, also clashing with the All-Ireland SFC quarter-finals. Maybe next year they could reverse the schedule?
Anyway, there are also two matches to discuss.
Dublin v Cork
First up, we have the meeting of Munster’s third-placed side and the Leinster runners-up.
Cork are the hottest of favourites, for two reasons.
The first is that they are the only team to have beaten Limerick in championship this year and so may have inherited the (probably unwelcome) unofficial title of ‘Most likely to just maybe, possibly, perhaps, stop them winning five-in-a-row’ from Clare.
The second is that Dublin desperately disappointed in defeat to Kilkenny.
Offaly 3-19 Cork 4-25 highlights
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Conceding a couple of goals late in injury-time in the preliminary quarter-final win over Offaly might have mildly concerned Pat Ryan but Cork still coasted over the line by nine points.
Recording the championship’s biggest ever score (7-38) against the same opposition last year didn’t do Tipperary much good in the end so you would imagine Cork tried to balance the need to win their first game in a month with thoughts of the bigger test to come this weekend.
Seamus Harnedy is back in the starting line-up, replacing fellow veteran Conor Lehane, in what is the only change from the XV that lined out against Offaly. Ethan Twomey (concussion) remains out but Damien Cahalane is on the bench again after a calf injury.
Patrick Horgan has hit 5-47 in his five games so far and could pass TJ Reid out as hurling’s all-time championship top scorer again with 11 points or more tomorrow.
Micheál Donoghue’s second campaign with Dublin has been a bit of a rollercoaster. League relegation and snatching a draw in Wexford in the spring, grabbing defeat from the jaws of victory against Kilkenny and then winning in Salthill to eliminate Galway in May.
Having been unlucky to lose to the Cats by two points in round four, expectations were reasonably healthy of a first Leinster title in 11 years but the final turned into a 16-point humbling in a contest that was over by half-time.
Kilkenny 3-28 Dublin 1-18 highlights
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It’s a little surprising then that Donoghue has named the same starting team but it would be no great surprise to see some late changes.
Dublin will hope to at least not gift Cork two goals as they did a fortnight ago – when goalkeeper Seán Brennan had a rough day – and to test how well their opponents have recovered from last week.
Reaching a first semi-final since 2013, and beating their conquerors of that year, would be a particularly sweet way to bounce back but you’d imagine they’ll need to muster much more of a goal threat to do so.
The winners will play Limerick unless it’s Cork and Wexford also beat Clare, in which case the Rebels would face Kilkenny to avoid repeat pairings.
Dublin: Seán Brennan; John Bellew, Eoghan O’Donnell, Paddy Smyth; Chris Crummey, Conor Donohoe, Paddy Doyle; Brian Hayes, Conor Burke; Danny Sutcliffe, Donal Burke, Seán Currie; Fergal Whiteley, Dara Purcell, Ronan Hayes.
Subs: Eddie Gibbons, James Madden, Daire Gray, Seán Gallagher, Darragh Power, Mark Grogan, Diarmaid Ó Dúlaing, Colin Currie, Paul Crummey, Jake Malone, Joe Flanagan.
Cork: Patrick Collins; Niall O’Leary, Eoin Downey, Seán O’Donoghue; Tim O’Mahony, Robert Downey, Mark Coleman; Ciarán Joyce, Darragh Fitzgibbon; Declan Dalton, Shane Barrett, Séamus Harnedy; Patrick Horgan, Alan Connolly, Brian Hayes.
Subs: Brion Saunderson, Damien Cahalane, Ger Mellerick, Tommy O’Connell, Luke Meade, Shane Kingston, Robbie O’Flynn, Jack O’Connor, Seán Twomey, Padraig Power, Conor Lehane.
Clare v Wexford
Second on the bill in Thurles is the beaten Munster finalists against Leinster’s third-ranked county.
It will be interesting to see whether Clare’s confidence in themselves has been dented as badly as the faith of others.
Having come into the season widely tipped as Limerick’s closest challengers, the squandering of a nine-point lead in the round-robin loss to Treaty and third successive Munster final defeat to the same opponents has tarnished the Banner brand somewhat.
Tyrrell even tips Wexford to win it, something that might have seemed far-fetched two weeks ago.
“The momentum of Wexford is definitely on an upward trend,” he said, of a county who have bounced back since narrowly avoiding relegation last year. “Keith Rossiter has done a lot of good stuff there.
“Clare probably aren’t at the same pitch as they were last year.”
Aron Shanagher grabs a goal for Clare, who have momentum.
💻 https://t.co/dfiQ0bYrXJ…
📺 https://t.co/QjlupWADOG…
📻 https://t.co/tJH4iJf3MU… #RTEgaa pic.twitter.com/OK7beC3d3u— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) June 18, 2022
Wexford haven’t beaten Clare in ten years in championship but these two have had some close recent battles. Brian Lohan’s side needed a late comeback to edge the Yellowbellies at this stage in 2022.
Lee Chin is having the season of his life and the 0-11 (four from play) he recorded in the comfortable preliminary quarter-final win over Laois makes him the championship’s top scorer with 3-65.
The failure to find the net last week is somewhat of a concern though, it’s hard to imagine Clare letting them score 32 points.
Richie Lawlor recovers to regain his midfield place from Tomás Kinsella in Wexford’s only change.
Liam Ryan (hamstring) is a big loss, as is Jack O’Connor, but there is a boost in the return of Diarmuid O’Keeffe to the panel for the first time this year following back surgery.
Limerick 1-26 Clare 1-20 highlights
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David Reidy has been recalled to the Clare team ahead of Brian’s nephew Darragh Lohan with Tony Kelly making his second start of the season at midfield.
Clare are no longer as reliant on the Ballyea sharpshooter but that is a hollow boast if they cannot convert the depth of their panel into victories and reach an All-Ireland final at least after two years of unfulfilled promise.
Kelly insisted during the week that they still believed they could win Liam MacCarthy and identified “efficiency and decision-making up front” as something to improve on from that deflating six-point provincial final loss, the first of the trilogy where it never really felt like a Limerick win was in doubt.
Clare will need to show they didn’t buy in to the ‘now or never’ narrative around the Munster final and will certainly need more accuracy from Aidan McCarthy on placed balls.
The Féile factor may help motivate Wexford as they pursue a first last-four spot since 2019 but if Clare are ever going to deliver on their undoubted potential under Lohan then they need a convincing win on Saturday.
Clare: Eibhear Quilligan; Adam Hogan, Conor Cleary, Conor Leen; Diarmuid Ryan, John Conlon, David McInerney; David Fitzgerald, Cathal Malone; Tony Kelly, Mark Rodgers, Peter Duggan; Aidan McCarthy, Shane O’Donnell, David Reidy.
Subs: Cian Broderick, Rory Hayes, Paul Flanagan, Cian Galvin, Darragh Lohan, Patrick Crotty, Ian Galvin, Aron Shanagher, Shane Meehan, Robin Mounsey, Seán Rynne.
Wexford: Mark Fanning; Shane Reck, Conor Foley, Eoin Ryan; Simon Donohoe, Damien Reck, Matthew O’Hanlon; Conor Hearne, Richie Lawlor; Liam Óg McGovern, Lee Chin, Charlie McGuckin; Cian Byrne, Conor McDonald, Rory O’Connor.
Subs: Aaron Duggan, Kevin Foley, Séamus Casey, Tomás Kinsella, Cathal Dunbar, Niall Murphy, Darragh Carley, Corey Byrne Dunbar, Diarmuid O’Keeffe, Conor Devitt, Paudie Casey.
Watch the All-Ireland Hurling Championship quarter-finals, Dublin v Cork (1.15pm) and Clare v Wexford (3.15pm), on Saturday from 12.45pm on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to commentary on Saturday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
