Sunday June 11

Connacht SFC Semi-Final

Galway v Mayo, Pearse Stadium, 4pm – RTE

Will the Mayo Empire strike back in today’s Connacht SFC Semi-Final against Galway at Pearse Stadium?

Last year’s defeat to their great rivals in MacHale Park stung, not least because not many in Mayo seemed to see it coming.

After five Connacht titles in a row and four All-Ireland Final appearances (including last year’s replay) they were perhaps entitled to think they’d be too strong and experienced for a relatively callow Galway team.

But they were caught on the hop, and that will surely focus their minds for Sunday’s match.

That doesn’t mean Mayo will simply reverse last year’s result. Galway have won a Connacht Championship and Allianz Football League Division Two title in the interim, and their young team has done a lot of growing up.

The return of Fiontán Ó Curraoin to the fold has given them some added heft in the middle third of the field, and their bench looks stronger this year than it did last year.

“I think they've shown that steady progression over the last two or three years,” says Mayo manager Stephen Rochford.

“Obviously, their under-21s had a fine run in the championship and their minors put on quite a display here a couple of weeks ago,” said Rochford.

“The seniors now are FBD champions, Division 2 champions, Connacht champions – that cabinet is getting fairly packed. So I think we know that it's going to be quite a battle going up into their back garden, but at the same time it's one that we're quietly looking forward too.”

If Galway were to beat Mayo for a second year running, it really would signal a changing of the guard in Connacht.

It’ll be interesting to see how they handle the sort of expectation from their supporters that simply wasn’t there this time last year.

“Is the pressure as big as last year? It's probably not in certain aspects and then on the other side we are probably expecting a bit more,” admitted Galway manager Kevin Walsh.

“We have got promotion and we were eyeing that up from a bit out,” says Walsh.

“The Connacht title is the big one. It would be lovely to retain it but things can go against you. You can have a bad day out which we had last year (against Tipperary) and if you do it's how you reset as a team. If you look at last year bar Dublin, ourselves, Kerry and Tyrone were the only teams that lost one game.

“Every other dressing-room got a lash twice. We got lashed once. It's important you develop as a team so that if you do get a hit along the way, if you have higher aspirations you learn how to deal with that."

**MAYO: **David Clarke; Chris Barrett, Ger Cafferkey, Keith Higgins; Colm Boyle, Lee Keegan, Patrick Durcan; Seamus O'Shea, Tom Parsons; Fergal Boland, Diarmuid O'Connor, Jason Doherty; Kevin McLoughlin, Cillian O'Connor, Andy Moran.

GALWAY: Ruairi Lavelle; Cathal Sweeney, Declan Kyne, Liam Silke; Gareth Bradshaw, Gary O’Donnell, David Wynne; Thomas Flynn, Fiontán Ó Curraoin; Johnny Heaney, Paul Conroy, Shane Walsh; Michael Daly, Damien Comer, Seán Armstrong.

Leinster SFC Quarter-Final

Offaly v Westmeath, O'Connor Park, 3pm

Westmeath have established themselves as the second-best team in Leinster over the course of the last couple of years thanks to two Leinster Final appearances in a row.

They’ll be taking nothing for granted going down to Tullamore though because there has been very little between the two teams over the course of a number of recent meetings.

Westmeath only barely edged last year’s Leinster quarter-final against the Faithful County by a single point, and manager Tom Cribbin is expecting a similar test on Sunday.

“We are expecting Offaly to come at us hard on Sunday; midland derby games are always filled with high drama and we are expecting nothing less from Sunday's encounter,” says Cribbin.

“Over the last number of weeks, Offaly have stepped up their preparations and I anticipate facing a tough Offaly side on Sunday.

“From our perspective, we are coming into the championship with a greater degree of confidence and belief. The main reason for this is quite simple; we have managed to remain injury free and this in effect brings consistency and stability to the set up.”

Offaly will have the benefit of home advantage which has to count for something, but manager Pat Flanagan knows they’ll have to be at their very best to take down a Westmeath team with serious firepower.

“Home advantage can be very relevant but these championship matches take on a life of their own,” says Flanagan. “This Westmeath team is very experienced, they have played in the last two Leinster finals and beat Kildare last year after beating us.

“I don't know whether home advantage makes that much of a difference. They are a very good team, they have some excellent players right across the board.

“It is a huge challenge for us, you have the experience of a team in two Leinster finals compared to one who got to their first win in the Leinster championship in ten years last year. You would imagine there is a gulf there but it is up to us to try and close that gap.”

**OFFALY: **Alan Mulhall; Brian Darby, Eoin Rigney, Sean Pender; Niall Darby, Peter Cunningham, Cian Donohue; Eoin Carroll, David Hanlon; Joseph O’Connor, Graham Guilfoyle, Michael Brazil; Sean Doyle, Nigel Dunne, Niall McNamee.

WESTMEATH: Darren Quinn; Jamie Gonoud, Kevin Maguire, Killian Daly; James Dolan, Paddy Holloway, Mark McCallon; Alan Stone, Ger Egan; Kelvin Reilly, Paul Sharry, Noel Mulligan; Kieran Martin, John Heslin, Shane Dempsey.

Munster SFC Semi-Final

Clare v Kerry, Cusack Park, 3.30pm

You wouldn’t blame the Clare footballers if they were sick of the sight of Kerry by now.

Last year they suffered two heavy defeats to the Kingdom in Championship football as they lost the Munster semi-final by 12 points and then the All-Ireland quarter-final by 11.

But despite that recent painful history, star forward David Tubridy is insisting Sunday’s showdown is one they’re relishing because it offers them a chance to atone for last year’s losses.

“When you're growing up you always want to play against Kerry,” said Tubridy this week.

“I think a lot of us felt that we let ourselves down last year in the Munster semi-final and All-Ireland quarterfinal games against them.

“The middle third is going to be key. We have to set up a line that's going to be very strong and that we don't let Kerry through too easily.

“They have a lot of great players, great runners on the ball and you saw in that in the league final when they had runners coming from all over the place. We can't give them the space to do that and have to put the pressure on and stop them building.”

It’s nine weeks since Kerry defeated Dublin in the Allianz Football League Final so it might take them some time to work the ring-rust out of their play against a Clare side that should benefit from a hard game against Limerick.

It’s still difficult to see any outcome other than a convincing Kerry win, but their manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice is typically taking nothing for granted.

“Physically, you can see that they're a year further down the road of an S&C regime and they knew what they were about,” says Fitzmaurice.

“The last time we were above in Ennis in 2014 we got a fair testing above there. We were maybe level at half time or even a point down and we had to play very well in the second half to get the job done, so we know what we are facing next weekend and we're not looking beyond that.”

CLARE: Joe Hayes; Gordon Kelly, Kevin Harnett, Martin McMahon; Pearse Lillis, Dean Ryan, Ciaran Russell; Gary Brennan, Cathal O'Connor; Shane Brennan, Sean Collins, Jamie Malone; Kealan Sexton, Eoin Cleary, David Tubridy.

KERRY: Brian Kelly; Fionn Fitzgerald, Mark Griffin, Shane Enright; Peter Crowley, Tadhg Morley, Paul Murphy; David Moran, Anthony Maher; Michael Geaney, Kevin McCarthy, Donnchadh Walsh; Barry John Keane, Paul Geaney, James O’Donoghue.

Ulster SFC Quarter-Final

Cavan v Monaghan, Breffni Park, 2pm - RTE/BBC

Cavan have had a couple of sliding-door moments against Monaghan in recent years.

In both 2013 and 2015 they lost to the Farney County by a single point, and watched from afar as their conquerors went on to win Ulster titles in both years.

You couldn’t blame Cavan for thinking that had they come out on the right side of either of those two results then they rather than Monaghan would have challenged the supremacy of Donegal and Tyrone in the province in recent years.

Instead they still haven’t turned achievement in the U-21 grade into the same at senior level, and will into Sunday’s match against Monaghan as underdogs again.

That’s a status Cian Mackey says the Breffni men can have no complaints about.

“When you’re going in against Monaghan I don’t think there are too many teams that won’t be underdogs,” says Mackey.

“They were third in Division One in the National League and just missed out on a league final by a point or two against Dublin in Clones. They’re one of the top teams in the country, so we wouldn’t be the only ones going in as underdogs against Monaghan.

“From 1 to 24 they’re all quality footballers and it showed with (Owen) Duffy coming off the bench, kicking three points and getting ‘Man of the Match’ (against Fermanagh).

“It’s no longer a one man show with Monaghan. They kicked 21 points and I think 19 of those were from play, so it shows that they’re doing a lot of things right.

“But we’d be hoping that it’s an overdue win from our perspective. We just have to look at our own game and stick to our plan and hopefully the plan is good enough to get over Monaghan, but it will be a tough task come the 11th.”

Cavan manager Mattie McGleenan has named two debutants, Conor Madden and Niall Clerkin in his starting line-up while Monaghan have kept faith with the team that defeated Fermanagh in the first round.

It’s a strong looking team on paper and they also have the bonus of a fit again Darren Hughes on the subs bench, but manager Malachy O’Rourke isn’t accepting his team are hot favourites for this match.

“To say that we face a big challenge on Sunday would not be overstating it in any way,” says O’Rourke.

“This is a local derby but even more so it’s an away game for us and there is danger in that, because when we were at home against Cavan in the league it finished and 0-7 each.

“There is nothing really between these sides any time they meet and the fact that we have one game behind us in the championship is not of any great significance because Cavan have had about 10 weeks of preparation for this match.

“They will have been studying us and preparing their game plans and that can be a major plus for them so I expect it to be a very, very tight contest on Sunday.”

**CAVAN: **Raymond Galligan; Padraig Faulkner, Killian Clarke, Niall Murray; James McEnroe, Conor Moynagh, Gerard Smith; Liam Buchanan, Gearoid McKiernan; Cian Mackey, Conor Madden, Martin Reilly; Niall Clerkin, Niall McDermott, Sean Johnston.

MONAGHAN: Rory Beggan; Fintan Kelly, Drew Wylie, Ryan Wylie; Colin Walshe, Vinny Corey, Neil Mc Adam; Kieran Hughes, Karl O’Connell; Gavin Doogan, Shane Carey, Dessie Ward; Conor McCarthy, Jack Mc Carron, Conor Mc Manus.