Five things to watch in the GAA this weekend

A repeat of a classic, some Cork/Tipp shadow boxing and a glimpse into Dublin's future are some of the things we'll be looking out for in the GAA this weekend.

Play it again there, Dublin and Galway

Whoever said the league doesn’t matter forgot to tell the senior hurlers of Dublin and Galway, who fought to retain their Division 1A status as if their lives depended on it in Tullamore last Sunday.

Both sides looked dead and buried at different stages of a riveting 90 minutes and although it must have been hard on the heart for supporters of both sides, the neutrals out there will gladly welcome a repeat performance in Portlaoise on Saturday.

The significance of the result for the losers won’t be lost on Anthony Daly or Anthony Cunningham nor should it be. Both Dublin and Galway will at least have pretensions of upsetting the established big two in the next few seasons, but they can pretty much forget about if they’re spending their springs doing battle against Carlow and Antrim (with all due respect) rather than Tipp and Kilkenny.

Sense prevails for the hurling semi-finals

It was estimated that around 11,000 people attended the National League football semi-finals on Sunday, but paltry as it sounds, that was a generous figure and it certainly dwindled hugely when the Mayo supporters floated out of headquarters after beating Kerry in the first game.

It has since been admitted that it was a huge mistake to stage the games there in the first place, but could the authorities not have seen beforehand that Kerry and Cork wouldn’t travel and that without Dublin involved that there wasn’t a hope of even half-filling Croke Park?

Thankfully, there will be no such issues at Semple Stadium on Sunday as with all four participating counties within an acceptable distance of Thurles, there should be plenty of bums on seats for the penultimate stage of the National Hurling League.

A step too far for the Banner?

Six wins from six in a flawless campaign in Division 1B is very much vindication of the good things Davy Fitzgerald has been doing with a young Clare side, but he’s probably spent the time since beating Limerick watering down the hype for fear of a rude awakening against Kilkenny this weekend.

Davy will be hoping it doesn't come to this on Sunday

It’s only been three weeks since the Cats had 25 points to spare in their defeat of Galway, although that was on the back of a disappointing defeat to Cork and as we’ve seen over the years, hell hath no fury like a wounded Kilkenny team under Brian Cody.

A win for the Banner is not inconceivable – generous odds of 11/2 would suggest otherwise – but a decent showing against the best team in the land would do wonders for their confidence going forward.

Shadow boxing at Semple Stadium

The second semi-final at Semple Stadium on Sunday has a more balanced look about it and on the face of it, should be a more competitive affair than Kilkenny v Clare. Or will it?

Cork and Tipp, of course, may well be meeting in the Munster Championship at the end of June if the Premier can get past the fairly sizeable obstacle formed by Limerick in the first round.

Such is the desire to treat matters with a level of secrecy that would make the Pentagon blush and an unwillingness to show one’s hand in the GAA that there is likely to be an element of shadow boxing on Sunday, even though it's more than two months until the Munster semi-final and there is a distinct possibility that they might not even meet at all.

Neither Jimmy Barry Murphy nor Declan Ryan will admit to purposely keeping any secret tactics under wraps this weekend and maybe they won’t, but if they do meet later in the summer, don’t be surprised if their personnel and strategy in two months time contrasts sharply with their approach on Sunday.

Can the Dubs cubs live up to the hype?

It has been a tumultuous spring for the Dublin senior footballers as they struggle to cope with the mantle of All-Ireland Champions, but even if they don’t manage to claim back to back triumphs this season, you’d imagine it won’t be too long before Sam is residing in the capital once again.

The conveyor belt of young talent, it seems, is functioning very smoothly and on Saturday in Portlaoise – a nice curtain-raiser before the Dublin hurlers’ relegation play-off against Galway – Dublin fans will be able to catch a glimpse of what the future holds.

Jim Gavin’s under-21 side face Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final and go into the game on the back of a dominant Leinster campaign in which they blew away all comers and racked up some fairly hefty scores in the process (without even facing Kilkenny!). In four games, the Dubs scored 8-64 and have conceded no more than 1-9 in any one game so far.

Amongst the starting XV tomorrow will be Jack McCaffrey, Emmet O Conghaile and Ciaran Kilkenny, a trio that are reportedly highly sought after by Australian Rules teams, with Kilkenny believed to be the most likely to head Down Under.

Cork are likely to offer a bigger threat than what they had to come up against in Leinster and it is a game that should prove whether or not the latest batch of Metropolitans can live up to the hype.