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Allianz Hurling League previews

Barry Nash will play in the Limerick half-back line against Laois in the Allianz Hurling League Quarter-Final on Saturday night. 

Barry Nash will play in the Limerick half-back line against Laois in the Allianz Hurling League Quarter-Final on Saturday night. 

Saturday, March 9

Allianz Hurling League Division 1 quarter-final

Laois v Limerick, O'Moore Park, 7pm (Live TG4)

Limerick manager John Kiely has made nine changes to his team for Saturday’s Allianz Hurling League Quarter-Final against Laois at O’Moore Park.

Corner-back William O’Meara makes his first ever start at senior inter-county level having come on as a sub last weekend against Clare for the injured Sean Finn who is ruled out with a hamstring injury.

Goalkeeper Barry Hennessy and wing-back Barry Nash make their first starts of the 2019 League campaign.

Nash is better known as a forward or midfielder, so it’ll be interesting to see how he fares in defense.

Limerick’s strength in depth will be very much on show against Laois because even though they’ll only start with six of their All-Ireland winning team, it’s still a formidable looking line-up.

Laois go into the match as massive underdogs, but they’ll plenty of encouragement from their performance against Dublin last weekend which they could easily have won had Dublin goalkeeper Sean Brennan not been in such fine form.

Laois manager Eddie Brennan believes his team will learn a lot from pitting themselves against the reigning All-Ireland champions.

“It’s an opportunity,” Brennan told the Leinster Express this week.. “I always look at it like that. We’re delighted that we got to a league quarter-final. It’s a way of benchmarking yourself.

“We have to see where we are, we have to embrace this challenge, there’s no point in being afraid of Limerick.

“Limerick are going to come and do what Limerick do, they’re an exceptional team and I think they’re in a great position to go and get the Liam MacCarthy again this year.

“That’s not blowing them up, that’s honest talk as far as I’m concerned, they’re justifiably Liam MacCarthy Cup champions.”

Limerick: Barry Hennessy; Tom Condon, Dan Morrissey, William O’Meara; Diarmuid Byrnes, Declan Hannon, Barry Nash; Darragh O’Donovan, Robbie Hanley; Gearoid Hegarty, David Dempsey, Conor Boylan; Peter Casey, Seamus Flanagan, Barry Murphy

**Laois: **Enda Rowland; Joe Phelan, Matthew Whelan, Donncha Hartnett; Padraig Delaney, Ryan Mullaney, Lee Cleere; Jack Kelly, Sean Downey; Paddy Purcell, Mark Kavanagh, Aaron Dunphy; John Lennon, Neil Foyle, Stephen Bergin.

Tipperary and Cork clash in Division 1A of the Allianz Hurling League on Sunday. 

Tipperary and Cork clash in Division 1A of the Allianz Hurling League on Sunday. 

Sunday, March 10

Allianz Hurling League Division 1A Round 5

Cork v Tipperary, Pairc Ui Rinn, 2pm (Live TG4)

A win for Cork here will guarantee their progress to the Allianz Hurling League Quarter-Finals whereas a win for Tipperary should see them through as long as there’s a winner in the Wexford-Kilkenny match.

Liam Sheedy’s team spent the week in Alicante on a warm-weather training camp and only returned today (Friday), so it’ll be interesting to see what sort of impact that will have on their performance.

If they undertook double-training sessions on most days of that camp, they may be a little heavy-legged for this match.

Cork’s form graph has been on the rise and they were especially impressive in their last league match – a well-deserved victory over All-Ireland champions Limerick.

Keep an eye out for Shane Kingston on Sunday. He excelled for UCC in their Fitzgibbon Cup success and looks primed to make a big impact on his return to the Cork team.

Tipperary: Paul Maher; Cathal Barrett, James Barry, Ronan Maher; Joe O’Dwyer, Padraic Maher, Robert Byrne; Noel McGrath, Michael Breen; Jake Morris, Niall O’Meara, Jason Forde; John O’Dwyer, Seamus Callanan, John McGrath.

Cork: Anthony Nash; Darren Browne, Damien Cahalane, Stephen McDonnell; Christopher Joyce, Tim O'Mahony, Eoin Cadogan; Cormac Murphy, Bill Cooper; Conor Lehane, Seamus Harnedy, Dan Dooley; Alan Cadogan, Aidan Walsh, Patrick Horgan.Subs: Patrick Collins, Robert Downey, Daniel Kearney, Sean O'Donoghue, Jack O'Connor, Ger Millerick, David Griffin, Luke Meade, Robbie O'Flynn, Mark Coleman, Shane Kingston.

Wexford v Kilkenny, Innovate Wexford Park, 2pm (deferred coverage TG4)

Matches between these two in recent times have been ferociously fought and we can expect that trend to continue on Sunday.

Kilkenny are still minus their sizeable Ballyhale contingent, but, apart from a heavy defeat to Limerick, they’ve coped relatively well without them.

The emergence of both Conor Delaney and Huw Lawlor as effective options at full-back has released Padraig Walsh to midfield with great effect, and it’ll be interesting to see on Sunday how he performs in a zone of the field that Wexford love to pack with bodies.

Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald has used the League to give most of his panel game-time and the manner in which they’ve still been very competitive has been most impressive considering all that chopping and changing.

With the prize of progression to the quarter-final on offer he’ll show his strongest hand today and that, combined with home advantage, could be enough to see Wexford come out on top.

Wexford: Mark Fanning; Damien Reck, Darren Byrne, Liam Ryan; Simon Donohoe, Matthew O'Hanlon, Shaun Murphy; Kevin Foley, Liam Og McGovern; Harry Kehoe, Jack O'Connor, Lee Chin; Paul Morris, Rory O'Connor, Conor McDonald.

Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy; Paul Murphy, Conor Delaney, Tommy Walsh; Conor Fogarty, Paddy Deegan, Jason Cleere; Padraig Walsh, Alan Murphy; John Donnelly, Walter Walsh, Ger Malone; Billy Ryan, Liam Blanchfield, Martin Keoghan. Subs: Enda Morrissey, Conor O'Shea, Conor Browne, Michael Cody, Richie Leahy, Richie Hogan, James Maher, Pat Lyng, Conor Martin, Ciaran Wallace, Niall Brassil.

Allianz Hurling League Division 1B round 5

Waterford v Galway, Walsh Park, 2pm (deferred coverage TG4)

Both teams have already qualified for the quarter-finals so this match could be something of a phony-war with fringe players on both sides given a chance to impress.

Still, Waterford will be keen to put on a show in front of their home supporters against a county that broke their hearts in the 2017 All-Ireland SHC Final.

The fact that they’ve been given the green-light to play their home matches in the Munster Championship at Walsh Park will also be a motivating factor because they want to turn the venue into a fortress.

There won’t be much between the teams, but a Waterford team keen to bounce back from defeat to Dublin might feel like they have a bigger point to prove.

Offaly veteran Joe Bergin remains a key player for his county. 

Offaly veteran Joe Bergin remains a key player for his county. 

Allianz Hurling League Division 1B relegation play-off

Offaly v Carlow, O'Connor Park, 2pm

These two teams played just last weekend when Offaly came out on top by 4-8 to 1-10 in what was by a comfortable margin their best performance yet this year.

Offaly had hit just two goals in their previous four matches before last weekend’s game against Carlow with a scoring average per match of just 14 points, so last weekend’s attacking display was significant upgrade on what we’d seen previously from them.

That win will surely give them a much-needed confidence boost, but you can be sure too that Carlow will have an axe to grind coming into this match because they just didn’t perform to the same level they had previously in the League against teams like Dublin, Galway, and Laois.

They didn’t concede any goals against either Galway or Laois, so to concede four against Offaly was out of character for Colm Bonnar’s well-drilled team.

They won’t fear having to travel to O’Connor Park for this match, and the easiest prediction to make is that there will be very little in this relegation play-off either way.

Offaly: Eoghan Cahill; Paddy Rigney, Niall Houlihan, Ben Conneely; Damien Egan, Pat Camon, Aidan Treacy; Shane Kinsella, Colm Gath; Kevin Dunne, Sean Dolan, Colin Egan; Conor Langton, Joe Bergin, Kevin Connolly.

Carlow: Brian Tracey; Alan Corcoran, Paul Doyle, Michael Doyle; Richard Coady, David English, Kevin McDonald; Jack Kavanagh, Sean Whelan; Seamus Murphy, Martin Kavanagh, Edward Byrne; James Doyle, Denis Murphy, Chris Nolan.

Allianz Hurling League Division 2A final

Westmeath v Kerry, Cusack Park, Ennis, 2pm

Westmeath defeated Kerry earlier in the League, but that statistic comes with a caveat.

By manager Joe Quaid’s own admission, they were gifted three soft goals that day which proved the difference and were out-hurled for long periods of the game by Kerry.

He also told GAA.ie this week that his team haven’t hurled all that well so far in the campaign, but that arguably makes the fact that they have still managed to win all five matches they’ve played an even more impressive statistic.

There's mixed news on the injury-front for the Lake County. Team captain and full-back Tommy Doyle misses out, but Cormac Boyle has recovered sufficiently from his knock to be named in the team.

Kerry have had a superior scoring average to Westmeath so far in the competition and in the outstanding Shane Conway – a star of UCC’s successful Fitzgibbon Cup campaign – they have a potential match-winner.

Westmeath: Aaron McHugh; Darragh Egerton, Conor Shaw, Gary Greville; Aaron Craig, Paul Greville, Aonghus Clarke (captain); Shane Power, Shane Clavin; Derek McNicholas, Niall Mitchell, Joey Boyle; Allan Devine, Robbie Greville, Cormac Boyle.

Kerry: J B O'Halloran; Sean Weir, Bryan Murphy, James O'Connor; Paud Costello, Jason Diggins, Fionan MacKessy; Daniel Collins, Brandon Barrett; Michael O'Leary, Shane Conway, Padraig Boyle; Jack Goulding, Michael Boyle, Jordan Conway. **Subs: **Martin Stackpoole, John Buckley, Tomas O'Connor, Niall O'Mahony, Daithi Griffin, Dan Goggin, Daniel O'Carroll, Evan Murphy, Darragh O'Donoghue, Joseph McElligott, Colum Harty.

Allianz Hurling League Division 2A round 2

London v Mayo, McGovern Park, 1pm

This match is effectively a relegation play-off because whoever loses it will finish bottom of Division 2A and drop down to Division 2B this year.

A draw would be enough for Mayo to stay up in Division 2A as they have a point on the board already whereas London are pointless.

If recent form is the best barometer of how this match is likely to go, then London’s looks better.

They gave Antrim a serious run for their money in Corrigan Park last weekend before losing by two points whereas Mayo slumped to a 12-point defeat to Westmeath.

Home advantage is also in London’s favour, so Mayo might be up against it.

Keith Raymond will be a key man for Sligo when they play Longford in the Allianz Hurling League Division 3B Final. 

Keith Raymond will be a key man for Sligo when they play Longford in the Allianz Hurling League Division 3B Final. 

Allianz Hurling League Division 2B final

Derry v Wicklow, Inniskeen, 2pm

These teams met as recently as last weekend when Wicklow were convincing victors on a scoreline of 2-16 to 0-16.

The fact that Derry were already qualified for this League Final provides some context, but their manager John McEvoy is adamant his team will have to really up their level of performance if they’re to turn the tables on Sunday.

“We went into the game and we thought we had the best session on the Wednesday before it, then we went out and didn’t play well,” said McEvoy this week.

“Wicklow are a fine side and they hurled us off the pitch in the first half last week. We will need to match them the next day in terms of intensity and hopefully we will do that.”

Forewarned is forearmed so expect Derry to be a different animal than they were last weekend.

But if Wicklow can get a good supply of ball into inside-forwards like Andy O’Brien, Christy Moorehouse and Jonathan O’Neill they are capable of repeating the dose.

Allianz Hurling League Division 3A final

Roscommon v Armagh, Pairc Tailteann, 2pm

Roscommon have experienced a big turn-over of players since winning the Nicky Rackard Cup in 2015 but seem to be building nicely again under manager Ciaran Comerford.

They lost just one of their regulation round matches and that was the final round against Lancashire when qualification for the League Final was already achieved and they could afford to rest many of their better players.

They’ll be back to full-strength for Sunday’s Final against an Armagh team that is always capable of putting up big scores, but also shipped one last time out against Tyrone.

When these two teams met earlier in the League Roscommon triumphed by 0-18 to 1-11 and will go into this match as slight favourites.

Allianz Hurling League Division 3B final

Sligo v Longford, Connacht GAA Centre, 2.30pm

These two teams met last weekend when Sligo hammered Longford by 3-15 to 0-3, but it would unwise to read too much into that one-sided result.

Both teams were already assured of being in this Final and Longford took the opportunity to make nine changes to the team that had beaten Cavan the previous weekend.

Still, the scale of the defeat was significant, and can’t have done anything for Longford’s morale ahead of this Final.

Sligo were probably favourites to top this Division at the outset but it took them some time to warm to the task as they laboured to one-point victories over both Fermanagh and Leitrim.

The 2018 Lory Meagher Cup champions have improved steadily since then and will fancy their chances of bringing home more silverware on Sunday.