With some club GAA championships starting this weekend and others entering the melting pot, we look at the big talking points heading into the weekend.
Waterford hurling championship enters knockout stages
Last week was arguably the shock of the championship accord when newly promoted side Ferrybank beat many people's dark horses, Clonea, in the Preliminary quarterfinal to book a spot against Mount Sion in the quarterfinal last night. The Premier Intermediate side motivated themselves by watching the film 14 Peaks the night before the game, as former Waterford senior panellists revealed on Clubber TV after the game.
"We watched a movie together last night, 14 Peaks," O'Brien told Clubber TV afterwards.
"We took that mantra from the film into it. Belief. We're going to do this. It's a big step up for us, but we believed we would win all week. We're not here to make up the numbers."
God only knows what film they would need to watch to beat a rejuvenated Austin Gleeson Mount Sion side.
A gorgeous point from Gleeson was the stand-out moment from last night's game, which ended with four red cards and an ugly sideline incident.
Austin Gleeson with the rarely attempted no-look point for Mount Sion tonight.
A pleasure to watch him hurl again.pic.twitter.com/JrIyERcSNt— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) August 16, 2024
Mount Suon won by six.
Other noticeable games this weekend see Comeragh rivals Clonea and last year's semi-finalist Fourmilewater battle it out in a relegation semi-final. The pair would know each other very well as they are Rathgormack and The Nire in football and have met in the last three senior county finals.
Munster champions Ballygunner will play last season's county finalists De La Salle. The Gunners have been without Dessie Hutchinson and Phillip Mahony so far this campaign and came very close to losing against Lismore in their final group game. If only Maurice Shanahan hadn’t missed a penalty, the streak would have ended at 54 straight wins in a row in the Waterford championship.
Arguably, the clash of the weekend is between close rivals Abbeyside and Dungarvan. I'd recommend giving this a watch if you're not doing anything at 6:45 on Saturday. It will be tense, as both sides don’t get along. Michael Kiely is in red-hot form for the Villagers, while Darragh Lyons is just back from America for Dungarvan.
READ MORE: Patrick Horgan Would Like To See GAA Officiating Change After All-Ireland Final Blunder
Armagh championship begins amid a sombre note
Armagh has definitely shown the right way to celebrate an All-Ireland win. Attention switches to the club championship this weekend and TG4 will be in the Orchard County on Sunday for the meeting of Crossmaglen Rangers and Clann na Gael.
However the Armagh SFC begins amid a sombre note. Cross have requested extra prayers for player Caolan Finnegan. The 20-year-old appeared in Crossmaglen's SFC opener last year but has been diagnosed with a rare type of brain cancer in the intervening time. He'll be in the thoughts of many gaels across the country this weekend.
The Finnegan family have kindly asked for everyone’s prayers especially tonight and in the coming days for Caolan💙
Please keep them all in your thoughts at this time 🙏 pic.twitter.com/eXhUtEbgOo— Crossmaglen Rangers (@crossrangers) August 16, 2024
Tipperary football championship in disarray
It hasn’t been a good year for Tipperary football at the intercounty level, and it also looks like it has happened in the club scene.
There will be no relegation from this year’s county senior football championship.
Ardfinnan’s proposal was passed at the county committee meeting, where delegates voted on the format of this year’s county senior football championship.
Ardfinnan’s proposal was passed on a vote of 32 to 16, defeating the proposal the county football committee put forward.
This year’s championship will have one group of four, one group of three, and one group of 6.
The top two teams in each group will progress to the quarter-finals, whilst 3rd and 4th in the six-team group will also progress to the last eight.
All other teams will go into the Tom Cusack Cup.
Drom-Inch was the first team to put the cat among the pigeons when it completely pulled out of the senior championship. As a result, it will play in the intermediate grade for 2025.
Killenaule has given Moyle Rovers a walkover in this weekend's action to focus on winning the Premier Intermediate.
It's not a good look for the championship, but at least we have the clash of Clonmel Commercials and Loughmore to look forward to.
