Sunday's GAA Football Championship Previews

The Championship seasons gets in to full flow this weekend with the big Ulster clash between Derry and Armagh at Celtic Park. In Munster, All-Ireland champions Kerry begin the defence of their crown against Tipperary, while Carlow and Wicklow do battle in Leinster.

Ulster GAA Football Senior Championship, Preliminary RoundCeltic Park: Derry v Armagh, 2.00pm

For many, the de facto start of the 2010 GAA All-Ireland Championship's is on Sunday at Celtic Park, where Ulster heavyweights Derry and Armagh meet in the preliminary round of the provincial Championship.

After the annual debate over the viability of the provincial Championship structure subsides, any argument over whether these local battles have lost their meaning to the players involved should be all but ended on Sunday afternoon.

One just has to look to the by now infamous Derry-Monaghan battle at Clones last year to see the value still placed on the provincial competition in Ulster. Given how that game transpired, it may not be the best example, but is still demonstrates the remarkable intensity of the competition.

Armagh go into the game still buzzing after winning the Allianz GAA Football National League Division 2 title. It was the Orchard County's first national title since the 2005 National League win, and was made all the sweeter given that they beat a highly fancied Down team in the decider at Croke Park.

After a slow start to their campaign, which included a mauling at the hands of Down in the group stages, Paddy O'Rourke's men made steady progress and came to the boil at just the right time, beating Donegal soundly in Round 7 to move into the final.

Steven McDonnell was once again their inspiration in an attack robbed of the talents of Ronan Clarke, who is again held in reserve on Sunday with an Achilles problem. The confidence gained by winning the Division 2 title cannot be underestimated, and the spark appears to be back in Armagh football after a terribly disappointing 2009 campaign.

Derry, by contrast, start the Championship on the back of a miserable league campaign which saw them relegated to Division 2 after five successive defeats bookended by wins at the start and end of their series of games. The opening day defeat of Tyrone was freighted with promise, but Damian Cassidy's team wilted badly and their collective confidence as a squad has taken a hit as a result.

Of course, the argument will be proffered that Cassidy was less concerned with mounting a challenge in the league after winning the competition in 2008 and reaching the final a year later did not prove a harbinger of success in the summer. To a degree, it is conceivable that Cassidy may have been purposely concealing his hand, but there is a decidedly gloomy feeling about Derry football at the moment.

Further dark clouds have gathered with the news that they will be without Charlie Kielt, who is ruled our with an ankle ligament injury, while fellow defender Michael McGoldrick is also out with a rib injury he sustained while on Club duty with Bellaghy. Fergal Doherty and Declan Mullan are carrying injuries but are fit to start while Enda Muldoon could also feature after making a full recovery from a broken foot.

With Tyrone considered less of a force this year, both counties will see an opportunity to win an Ulster title. For Derry to achieve that, they will have to string together four Ulster Championship wins in one year - a monumental task given their captain Gerard O'Kane recently pointed out that they have not managed four wins in Ulster Championship football since he joined the panel in 2004.

Armagh are not lacking for success at provincial level - they have won the competition seven times since 1999 - but they have only managed to push on to achieve the Holy Grail on the back of an Ulster title once, back in 2002. Perhaps Paddy O'Rourke may have a different strategy up his sleeve this year given the poor record of teams who play in the dreaded preliminary round game.

As always with Ulster Championship football, the margins in this game promise to be gossamer thin and the game will be tight and sometimes uncompromising. Derry will be geared up for battle and home advantage will be a big plus, but the newfound confidence Armagh gained from their recent league success should be enough to see them through by a narrow margin.

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Munster GAA Football Senior Championship - Quarter FinalThurles: Kerry v Tipperary, 4.00pm

Such have been the over-the-top lamentations about the sundering of Kerry's All-Ireland winning team in the off season, it would be easy to buy into the belief that the Kingdom will be a diminished force in 2010. However, one look at the team Jack O'Connor has picked for Sunday's Munster Championship opener against Tipperary at Semple Stadium should provide a sharp dose of reality for the doubters.

O'Connor includes ten of the side that beat Cork in last September's decider and even has the luxury of leaving his captain from 2009, Darran O'Sullivan, on the bench. John Evans, the Tipperary boss and Kerry native, was probably pinning his hopes on the Kingdom being greatly under strength this early in the year. No such luck. The Ó Sé brothers, Tomás and Marc, have both shaken off injuries and start in an awesome looking defence that also includes Mike McCarthy, who is parachuted straight back into the team at centre-back for his seasonal debut.

Brendan Kealy is rewarded for a solid league campaign with the number one jersey vacated by the retired Diarmuid Murphy. The other big void in the side, the midfield berth left by Darragh Ó Sé, is filled by the considerable frame of Micheál Quirke. Colm Cooper has made a full recovery after an eye operation and will lead the Kerry attack from corner forward.

The epitaph for this great Kerry team was written by some as soon as the Tommy Walsh and Tadhg Kennelly left for Australia, and a mixed league campaign did little to convince that all would be well come Championship time. However, Kieran Donaghy will be like a new player this year after spending much of the 2009 Championship on 'Maor Uisce' duty, while Kennelly's loss must be taken in the context that his involvement was always going to be brief.

There is a nagging suspicion among some football aficionados that Tipperary could face a Kerry backlash on Sunday. Despite relegation to Division 3 of the Allianz GAA Football National League this year, Tipperary football remains on the up thanks to the County Boards's sterling work in promoting the big ball game in a hurling stronghold.

After successive promotions between from 2008-'09, relegation was a major disappointment, but Tipperary will not be too disheartened, especially as their underage teams showed signs that further success at Senior level can be expected down the road.

Evans and Tipp can take great heart from the Cadbury GAA Munster U21 final defeat of the Kingdom, which gave the Premier County their first success at that level, and was all the sweeter given that it came against the traditional powerhouse of Munster football. The U21s were eventually beaten by Donegal in the All-Ireland semi-final, but that team should provide Tipperary with a solid foundation for years to come.

Peter Acheson has been promoted from the U21 team and will make his Senior Championship debut in a side that shows three changes in total from the one that exited the Championship at the hands of Sligo last year.

Kerry will not lack for motivation on Sunday given the column inches that were devoted to their supposed demise over the winter months. The fact that the game is being played on the massive Semple Stadium pitch should play into the hands of a forward line that is capable of doing massive damage given space (Dublin will attest to that!). Kerry should get their campaign off to the perfect start, but Tipperary are a team that could yet spring a few surprises in the Qualifiers.

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Leinster GAA Football Senior Championship - Preliminary RoundPortlaoise: Wicklow v Carlow, 3.30pm

After a fairytale 2009 campaign, Mick O'Dwyer's Wicklow (everyone's second favourite team!) return to the forefront of the national consciousness - after a quiet winter - when they take on Carlow in the Leinster Championship opener.

Having reached the last 12 of the GAA All-Ireland Championship last year, and knocked Kildare out of Leinster in 2008, Wicklow can no longer claim to be dark horses or an unknown package. Indeed, their manager's habit of refusing to make any alterations to his team means there should be few surprises from the Garden County. But sometimes one cannot legislate for the alchemy of O'Dwyer, the genial Waterville man who has plotted Wicklow's rise from the depths.

Wicklow coasted through their league campaign and still managed to finish just two points off the promotion places, but O'Dwyer has always stated that league success is not one of his priorities. It will be hard for the Kerry native to lift his troops to the heights they reached in 2009, and the loss of Thomas Walsh to Sunday's opponents is a massive blow.

Nonetheless, O'Dwyer has included 13 of the team that exited the Championship to Kildare last year in his starting XV. Ciaran Hyland is a big loss in the full-back line, but the eleventh hour return to the panel of Dara O hAnnaidh is a timely boost. Nicky Mernagh is handed a debut at wing-forward, meaning JP Dalton moves into midfield to counteract Carlow's expected dominance of that sector.

Midfield is the one area of the field that Carlow can expect to have a real surfeit of possession, and there is little doubt that Luke Dempsey's game plan will focus on the ball winning ability of Thomas Walsh and Brendan Murphy.

The Barrowsiders' midfield is the envy of every team in the country, but Dempsey has problems in other areas of the field and has been forced to include five newcomers to Championship football in his team. Regulars Daniel St Ledger, JJ Smith, Willie Minchin, John Murphy and Eric McCormack are all ruled out through injury, and the fear is that Carlow's lack of experience could prove costly against a battle-hardened Wicklow team.

Dempsey, however, is refusing to focus on the length injury list in the build-up to Sunday's game. "The championship is the yardstick everyone is measured on," the Carlow boss said. "No one stops to ask who was injured or who was missing. No one wants to hear excuses. This is where you're judged, simple as that. I've mixed feelings about Sunday. Trepidation and anticipation. But we've prepared as well as we could. Wicklow had some huge victories last year in the qualifiers and that always bring a team on."

Carlow's mixed league form provides few pointers as to how they will perform, but they are reported to have shown well in a series of challenge games in recent weeks. The Barrowsiders' deplorable Championship record in recent years must come to an end soon, but Wicklow should have too much nous to slip up this early in the Championship, although the Garden County could well be focused on ambushing bigger targets later in the summer.