WEATHER
Sunny spells in the east at first, but cloudier conditions in the west will gradually extend eastwards through the morning and early afternoon along with patchy light rain and drizzle. Brighter and drier intervals will spread from the west during the evening. Highest temperatures 16 to 21 degrees in light to moderate south-westerly winds. For more, visit met.ie.
Group 1
Waterford occupy fourth spot and outside the qualification places at present, which is not what last year's runners-up would have been hoping for in their first season under Jerry Wallace’s stewardship.
The Deise still have their fate in their own hands however, and given Antrim’s travails, with the Saffrons propping up the table after three heavy defeats, anything other than a victory would be a huge shock.
Waterford must make the long journey north, and while the hosts have a negative score difference of -48, that is only three worse than Limerick so they will be keen to put up a good performance ahead of next weekend’s do or die battle against the winless Shannonsiders that will determine who finishes bottom and goes into a relegation play-off.
Derry have been one of the stories of the championship, cementing their senior status on their return to elite camogie after winning last year’s intermediate title in a replay against Meath.
Now that they have claimed the scalps of Antrim and Limerick, they are in bonus territory and have free shots against Kilkenny and Waterford. First up are the Cats, and a win in Freshford would be their greatest in the modern era.
Kilkenny have enjoyed an excellent championship to date after being viewed in some quarters to be in transition minus the services of the legendary Denise Gaule and fantastic defensive reader, Claire Phelan.
After two easy away victories, they emerged from their first significant test on home territory against Waterford and while caught late on for a share of the spoils, showed enough to suggest they are contenders for overall honours once more.
This pitches a team with no point from three games against another with a full return. What makes it worse for Limerick is that Tipperary are the form team in the country, following up their League title success with a tremendous championship campaign that includes victory over Waterford.
The return of multiple All-Star Cáit Devane - pictured above - after missing out on the first half of the season has added to the depth of the panel.
Limerick will be hoping to take some positivity from this, not least because score difference may still be a factor, though they conclude the group stages with a game against fellow strugglers Antrim, which is likely to decide which of the pair will be involved in a relegation play-off.
Group 2
All-Ireland champions Cork have cruised to three straight wins and anything other than another victory against Dublin would be an upset.
But Dublin are Division 1B league champions, pushed Kilkenny close in a Leinster final and got to within three points of Galway in the opening tie of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Championship before accounting for Wexford last week in a key match-up where the third qualifying spot in Group 2 is concerned.
Cork are without Libby Coppinger at full-back until the very latter stages of this competition, at least, but did welcome back Laura Treacy a fortnight ago. Dublin, with captain Aisling Maher flourishing in a quarter-back position at centre-back, will ask some questions but the pace in Ger Manley's team should thrive in the Páirc Uí Chaoimh expanses.
It was always going to be a difficult summer for Down, after losing one of their greatest ever players, Niamh Mallon, who transferred to Galway. That came a few years after Sorcha McCartan switched to Cork. The Mourne outfit have battled hard but suffered some tough defeats, the last against Galway a fortnight ago particularly chastening.
Wexford should be too strong, particularly with home advantage, and after losing to Dublin last time out, when they didn’t approach anything like the form that earned them a draw against Galway the week before, must take care of business to keep their hopes of progressing to the last six alive.
The lengthy gap between the conclusion of the league and the commencement of the championship appeared to tell for Galway.
It was accentuated by playing teams that had played in provincial championship in that period. They had just three points in hand of Dublin in the opening round and then drew with Wexford. They opened up against Down but Clare will be a step up from that.
The Banner have beaten Down too but lost to Dublin, making their prospects of advancing to the quarter-finals quite slim, but a stunning victory here against their neighbours would put them right back in the mix.
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