Weekend GAA Preview: Battle Royale in Ballybofey, major mix-up in Munster and the Gooch, mark II

We’re looking ahead to the game of the season so far in Ballybofey, at the lighter half of the Leinster Championship and whether the Gooch can thrive in a new role for the Kingdom.

Battle Royale in Ballybofey

The GAA is rightly criticised for the fact that, season upon season, the launch of the respective championships have all the pizzazz of a deflating balloon as opposed to the big bang they deserve. By rights, it is this game that should have kicked it all off because it’s hard to think of a provincial game that has generated as much interest as the meeting of Donegal and Tyrone in Ballybofey this weekend.

On the face of it, the game has all the ingredients for a classic. Having been beaten by Donegal in the last two Ulster Championships and had their mantle of provincial kingpins taken away from them in the process, Tyrone will be keen to take Jim McGuinness’ men down a peg and the intent to do so was evident as early as the league meeting between the sides earlier in the season.

Donegal, on the other hand, will be keen to prove their credentials as the team to beat and also illustrate that relegation in the league was a slight stumble on a road on which all the signs have pointed to this game from a long, long way off.

Do we expect a classic? Unfortunately, no. Neither McGuinness nor Harte care about aesthetics at this stage, they care about winning and Harte has shown in the past – particularly in the championship meeting between the sides last year – that his way of trying to counteract Donegal’s now almost bullet-proof defensive system is to fight fire with fire and impose similar tactics on his Tyrone charges.

Because we are talking about two of the best teams in the country, it will be compelling viewing but don’t be surprised if there isn’t an avalanche of scores. Do expect hard hitting, ridiculous intensity and a healthy disrespect emanating from a rivalry that has been simmering for a couple of years now and has threatened to boil over at times.

Both teams will, barring a miracle, be still involved in the business end of the Championship a little further down the road anyway, but it would be a significant feather in the cap of McGuinness or Harte to win the first battle in what will be a gruelling war between now and September.

Scheduling farce in Munster

Getting back to the issue of scheduling, the ridiculousness of the current system is perhaps best illustrated in the Munster Championship and the fixture headache that greets the winner of Kerry’s clash with Tipperary on Sunday.

The winner will then go on to face Waterford in the Munster semi-final next Saturday night and the winners of that match will then have to wait five weeks until the Munster final against one of Cork, Limerick or Clare on June 7.

We understand that Waterford asked to have the semi-final moved forward to the same weekend their hurlers are playing to limit the impact on club games in the county, but surely there was a more efficient way of scheduling the fixtures than the way they are laid out at the moment?

In fairness to Munster, the problem is a national and not a local one and is something that is highlighted every year without an effective remedy being put forward in response. In an attempt to free the madness of the schedule from our minds, however, we are looking forward with interest to seeing how the Gooch performs in a withdrawn centre-forward role this weekend.

Putting Gooch at 11 could be a shrewd move on Eamonn Fitzmaurice's part

While still one of the best forwards in the country in recent years, Cooper has also been restricted by the greater protection offered by the ubiquitous blanket defences in operation across the country and may thrive in the greater space afforded to him as well as getting the chance to show that he can instigate attacks almost as well as he can finish them off.

Big opportunity for Leinster’s lightweights

Last week, we talked about the opportunity that knocked for those on the easier side of the Ulster Championship draw, an opportunity that Cavan grasped in impressive fashion in Breffni Park.

A similar opportunity awaits those kicking off their Leinster Championship campaigns this weekend, where Laois, Louth and Longford in particular must be thinking that there’s a Leinster Final well within their grasp if they put their minds to it.

Home advantage should see to it that Laois prevail over Louth in Portlaoise even though there wasn’t much between them in the Division Two League table, while despite not winning a single game in the same division, Longford have made such giant strides under Glenn Ryan that you’d fancy them to have enough for a Wicklow side recently relegated from Division Three in Aughrim ahead of a potential clash with Meath in three weeks time.

With the Dubs, Kildare and Westmeath on the other side of the draw it would take a brave man to say that the Leinster Champions can come from this side, but the prospect of competing in the final and the momentum a good run in Leinster would generate should be a huge motivating factor for at least three of the sides in action in the province this weekend.

JOE's Championship Predictions:

Limerick v Cork: Cork

Kerry v Tipperary: Kerry

London v Sligo: Sligo

Laois v Louth: Laois

Wicklow v Longford: Longford

Donegal v Tyrone: Tyrone

You’ve seen our predictions above and next week we’ll be announcing an all-new JOE GAA prediction competition in association with eircom. Check out the experiencemore website here to get a head start and have a play this weekend. We’ll have a code for the Joe League next week.