All-Ireland Senior Football Championship Qualifiers Round 4B

Cork v Donegal, Croke Park, 4pm (SKY)

These two teams have played one another quite a bit in recent years so have few secrets to hide from one another.

In the last five years they have played one another six times, with Donegal coming out on top on four of those occasions.

Most recently, the Ulster team enjoyed a thumping 2-14 to 1-7 win over the Rebels in the League this year.

Generally, the pattern when these two teams meet is that Cork struggle to cope with Donegal’s relentless physicality. The fixture does still have the potential to surprise though, because no-one would have predicted that Cork would score four goals on the way to beating the Ulster team in last year’s League semi-final.

That result proved that Cork still have the wherewithal to produce a big performance on any given day such is their pure footballing quality, but they arguably haven’t summoned one since last year’s drawn Munster Final against Kerry.

In theory, they know what they need to do to have the best chance possible of beating Donegal today – use the full width of the pitch and avoid carrying the ball into contact as much as possible.

But as Rebels defender Eoin Cadogan admits, it’s one thing knowing the ideal game-plan against Donegal, it’s quite another thing executing it.

“We played them last year, played them in the league semi-final last year and so on. Since 2012 on, we've played them quite a bit. It's not going to change a whole pile.

“What you see is what you get with Donegal, they're a very hard working team. There 's a lot of guys with huge experience there, a lot of All-Ireland winners.

“It's grand to say, we know what to do. If we knew what to do, we'd be beating all these teams. You have to learn from it, you have to look at the Ulster championship how it panned out for them, the Tyrone game in particular, Donegal looked to have won that game in the 70th minute with Murphy's free.

“Then, bang, long range points. We know what's coming, everyone knows what Donegal bring to the table.”

What Donegal have brought to the table so far in the Championship has certainly been more impressive than what we’ve seen from Cork.

They showed guts, guile, and no little skill to beat reigning Ulster champions Monaghan after a replay, and even though they lost the Ulster Final against Tyrone it’s worth remembering they played some really high quality football for the first 40-odd minutes of that match.

They might not quite be the force they once were, but manager Rory Gallagher remains convinced there’s another All-Ireland title in this Donegal team.

“For sure, 100 per cent,” he said this week. “That’s ultimately why the boys come back out. When you’ve won the All-Ireland as recently as we have in 2012, we feel we’re a match for anybody in the country," Gallagher told the Irish News.

“If Tyrone were seen as the benchmark, there was very little between the two teams. We’re looking forward and, at the minute, the full focus is on Cork."

The two week break since losing to Tyrone should have proven sufficient for Donegal to recover both mentally and physically from that set-back. Coming to Croke Park will feel like a fresh start, and Gallagher admitted the prospect of playing at headquarters again has reinvigorated his team.

“We have a great affinity with Croke Park over the last five or six years. Both the experienced members and the young members of our squad want to be back there and enjoy it. For some of them, it might be the last game or few games they’re ever going to have in it.”

Donegal are favourites to win this match for a reason, but Cork will be highly motivated to prove their many doubters wrong. At the very least, they’ll go down swinging on Saturday.

“There isn't much point in going out there and being reserved in your play and careful to a certain degree,” says Cadogan. “I think you have to attack it and go for it.

“I still feel like personally you haven't seen the best of this squad in particular this year. I don't think our performances have reflected the types of players that we have. So I'm hoping Saturday week, we show what we're worth.”

Mayo v Westmeath, Croke Park, 6pm (SKY)

Westmeath manager Tom Cribbin’s proclivity for straight-talking is refreshing.

Most managers in his position would be doing all they could to emphasise the difficult challenge the Mayo team they play in Saturday’s Round 4B Qualifier represents.

But instead Cribbin bullishly offered the opinion that his team are revved up for the task of playing a team he does not regard to be in the same bracket as the Dublin side that beat them in the Leinster Final.

“Our lads are really up for it,” said Cribbin. “Mayo are not playing at their best and the manager probably doesn’t yet know his best team.

“They don’t have the pace all over the pitch that Dublin have. Jim Gavin can even bring on natural quality forwards like Paddy Andrews and Paul Mannion. But I still don’t think that Dublin were 15 points better than us.

“This is a great chance at the right time of the year to see where we are against a top team. There isn’t the same aura about Mayo that there is about Dublin. This will really let us know where we are at.”

Cribbin is correct in everything he says. From what we’ve seen from Mayo so far this year, they are some way shy of the standard being set by Dublin.

Their team is not fully settled, and full-back in particular is a real problem position for them.

Expect Westmeath to attack them were they are weakest by keeping John Heslin on the edge of the Mayo square where he is capable of doing a lot of damage.

This is a great chance for Westmeath to make a real statement by taking a properly big scalp in the Championship, but it would be foolish to write off Mayo.

Since losing to Galway in Connacht their game has been on a slow but steady upward trajectory, and the momentum of two wins in a row has to count for something going into this game.

Diarmuid O’Connor is in tremendous form and Evan Regan has been sharp too, so offensively they offer a big threat.

They’re still vulnerable enough at the back, but the injury absence of Ray Connellan means Westmeath may not quite have the wherewithal to really expose them there.

There’s a lot on the line for both teams here. If Mayo win, they’ll believe they’re genuine All-Ireland contenders again. If Westmeath do, they’ll prove they’re more than just the second-best team in Leinster and will earn a whole new level of respect.

It’s a pressurised occasion, and Mayo will hope their greater experience of them will count for something.