After the surfeit of big ball games in Croke Park last weekend, we've a mixture of hurling and football tomorrow and Sunday. It's unseemly to do too much boasting but we were uncannily close to the mark last weekend. How will we fare this weekend.
1. Just how good are Limerick?
There was a bit of skirmish in the press earlier in the year concerning the prevailing (and supposedly condescending) attitude towards this Limerick team.
They have subject to many lavish tributes for sure, with many praising their heart and passion and guts and determination and all those other things that mean the same thing as the previous four words.
Some felt that the excessive focus on these factors denigrated their abundant skill. Limerick were treated like the Ireland side of the early 90s, forever roughing technically superior Eastern European sides out of it on muddy pitches.
These critics wanted them to be praised on account of the their mastery of the finer arts of the game.
Their easy destruction of a Wexford side who'd been busy pulling up trees in the qualifiers surely caused something of a re-evaluation. This weekend is a bigger test still.
2. How will Dublin fare against the first properly defensive team they've played?
So far, Dublin have been partying hard against a host of 20th century minded outfits in Leinster.
Touchingly naive sides who haven't exactly spent the night brainstorming alternative ways of combating them.
While Monaghan's defence wasn't exactly fastened with the finest of padlocks against Kildare, they have long been earmarked as a team who could slip a banana skin in front of an unsuspecting Dublin juggernaut. Possibly.
We reckon on the whole that this represents wishful thinking on the part of those growing restless at Dublin's dominance.
3. Will Paul Grimley get a chance to duck a winning post-match interview?
Armagh surprising run though the qualifiers has been largely overshadowed by their public relations policy but they are a rapidly improving outfit.
However, on the evidence of the Ulster Final, Donegal form has returned to something more resembling 2012 levels. They have shaken off the bad dream that was the 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final and now they should be able to take Armagh who ultimately look to be a less practised version of themselves.
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