SUNDAY
Division 1
Galway v Kerry, Pearse Stadium, 1.45pm
Mayo v Monaghan, Hastings MacHale Park, 1.45pm
Roscommon v Donegal, Hyde Park, 1.45pm
Tyrone v Armagh, Healy Park, 1.45pm
Division 2
Clare v Limerick, Cusack Park, 2pm
Cork v Derry, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 2pm
Dublin v Louth, Croke Park, 2pm
Kildare v Meath, St Conleth's Park, 2pm
Division 3
Cavan v Fermanagh, Kingspan Breffni, 2pm
Longford v Antrim, Glennon Bros Pearse Park, 2pm [moved from Sat 3.30pm due to weather]
Offaly v Down, O'Connor Park, 2pm
Westmeath v Tipperary, TEG Cusack Park, 2pm
Division 4
Leitrim v Sligo, Páirc Sean MacDiarmada, 1pm
London v Laois, McGovern Park, 1pm
Waterford v Wicklow, Fraher Field, 1pm
ONLINE
Live blog of the final round of the league from 1.30pm Sunday on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app.
RADIO
Live commentary and updates from around the grounds on the RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport.
TV
TG4 screens live coverage of Galway v Kerry (1.45pm throw-in) from Salthill on Sunday. Deferred coverage of Dublin v Louth (5.40pm) in Division 2
Highlights and reaction to all the weekend's action on Allianz League Sunday, RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player, from 9.30pm.
WEATHER
Scattered showers with some sunny spells in a mostly light northerly breeze. Highs will range from 7 degrees in Ulster up to 13 degrees in Munster. For more, visit met.ie.
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Final day frenzy
The final round of the Allianz League is traditionally a day beloved of football anoraks, results whizzing in from all over the place, confirming who's going down, who's going up and who's staying where they are.
Many have argued that league finals are an extraneous irrelevance and the competition should really conclude this weekend, with the table toppers lifting the trophy on Sunday evening. But the GAA holds fast to the view that a tournament that hasn't had a final simply isn't finished yet.
In their defence, the finals are a useful money-spinner (always an important consideration) and fourth tier teams in particular no doubt appreciate a novel runout in Croke Park. Leitrim's Division 4 final appearance in 2019 was their first match at HQ in a quarter of a century. They have a chance to make another this weekend.
All Division 1, 2 and 3 games are played simultaneously, with all bar one games across the four tiers taking place on Sunday. Only the Wexford-Carlow game (which Wexford won 1-16 to 0-13) threw in on Saturday. The Longford-Antrim match in Division 3 was initially planned for Saturday afternoon but switched to Sunday due to the weather.
In truth, we may be served less final day drama than in previous years. A fair few questions have already been settled. My colleague Niall McCoy has done much of the heavy lifting with his full permutations article.
Clare and Limerick were officially relegated from Division 2 last week and will need to make a provincial final to qualify for the Sam Maguire race. Longford and Tipperary, whose only point came in a draw with each other, have been demoted from Division 3.
Derry, the only team with an 100% record, are already promoted from Division 2, with Dublin and Louth meeting in a Croke Park shootout to see who joins them.
Cavan, whose path to the Sam Maguire has been complicated by the unusual Connacht championship draw, are home and dry in Division 3. Fermanagh - the visitors to Kingspan Breffni on Sunday and Offaly are in a battle to join then with Down, despite being third, ruled out via their head-to-head losses to both Cavan and Fermanagh.
Who wants to make a league final?
It was back in the halcyon days of 2001 that Connacht's Big Two met in the Division 1 decider. Mayo, under Pat Holmes, were the surprise winners by a point, taking home their first national title in decades. However, it was Galway who ended the year with the biggest prize in their clutches, recovering from a shock defeat to Roscommon in the Connacht semi-final in the inaugural back-door championship.
Now, as then, Connacht football is in rude health and it's possible we're primed for another western decider. Paul Conroy this week remarked that there were no Division 1 titles in their dressing room, indicating that they're inclined to properly go after this National title.
The Galway midfielder also noted that Galway have the slight luxury of a gap between the league final weekend and their opening bow in championship. Something Mayo - who this week asked that the Division 1 final be moved to Saturday week - do not have.
Kerry, as was anticipated, haven't gone full throttle at the league in the wake of last year's double. Jack O'Connor's side have subsisted on home wins thus far, losing all three games on the road. Despite it all, they could still find themselves in a league final should they win in Salthill, depending on the margin and results elsewhere.
Roscommon, who've lost three on the bounce since their perfect start, are certainly still in the hunt for a league capital, hoping that Kerry win in Pearse Stadium and they run up the score against a demoralised Donegal.
Relegation is still an outside possibility though is highly unlikely given their score difference superiority vis a vis Monaghan.
Mayo's situation makes promising reading for Monaghan supporters. With a league final spot already assured and a fairly heavy programme of games upcoming, it seems unlikely that Kevin McStay would use his first choice team when he doesn't need them. Should Monaghan come to MacHale Park and edge out a Mayo second-string, then Armagh, a great disappointment in the league thus far, would need a result in Omagh against a revitalised Tyrone to avoid relegation. Kieran McGeeney's life has also been made more awkward by the quad injury picked up by star attacker Rian O'Neill this week, ruling him out for the start of the Ulster championship.
The great survivors of Division 1 could pull it off again. A fifth sixth placed finish in eight years (not including their relegation playoff win in the shortened 2021 campaign) is a distinct possibility.
Can Donegal pick themselves off the floor?
As Donegal trudged out the championship with a whimper against Armagh last summer, there was a morbid and gnawing sense that this could be the end of an era for the county.
One which began when Jim McGuinness marched into the role in late 2010, brandishing a copy of the Irish Independent's end-of-season power rankings, and which eventually yielded five Ulster titles, 10 provincial final appearances in 12 years and an unforgettable All-Ireland final victory in 2012.
Nothing that's happened since has dispelled this gloomy prognosis. Michael Murphy announced his retirement last November, depriving the incoming management team of Donegal's greatest ever player.
There was some disquiet that said management team had been appointed so late, furthering the narrative that several candidates had taken a look and decided they didn't fancy it.
Paddy Carr, one-time Donegal player who guided Kilmacud Crokes to the 2009 All-Ireland title, was eventually appointed manager.
Five months later, he's gone and it could fairly be said he barely got a proper run at the job at all. With Murphy gone, and Paddy McBrearty and Ryan McHugh injured, Carr and Donegal were on a hiding to nothing.
While they did at least rustle up three points, and were highly competitive away to Armagh, last Sunday's abject surrender at home to Mayo was damning. On Wednesday, the news dropped that Carr was gone "after a meeting with the players". Aidan O'Rourke and Paddy Bradley will take control of the team in Roscommon.
All told, it's been a wretched spring for Donegal football across the board, with Karl Lacey's departure from the academy speaking to a disorganisation and chronic lack of direction in the county. The county board issued a statement on Friday saying they wished for Lacey to return.
Bizarrely, Donegal can still stay up this weekend, albeit only in a technical sense. It would require Monaghan to draw in Castlebar (any other result in that game officially relegates Donegal), Armagh to lose in Omagh, Donegal to win themselves (naturally) with an enormous score difference swing. Given that Monaghan are -16 and would remain so in the above scenario, then Donegal (-29) require a minimum 14 point victory in the Hyde and then Armagh would have lose by 15 or more. So, practically impossible.
Louth and proud
Under the management of the famed Tyrone brains trust of Mickey Harte and Gavin Devlin, Louth have emerged as one of the teams of the league and probably earned the tag of Leinster's second best team.
RTÉ columnist Lee Keegan sang their praises this week, noting that their performance is particularly impressive given the loss of two key players, Sam Mulroy and Ciarán Byrne to injury.
Unfortunately, in their winner-takes-all promotion battle, they face Leinster's No. 1 team, and the consensus remains that there's a fairly substantial drop-off between 1 and 2 in the province.
Still, Dublin have shown themselves fallible in their slightly humdrum Division 2 campaign and have only mustered one-point wins in their two Croke Park games thus far. A Harte-managed team is unlikely to leave the same yawning gaps in defence that the Dubs exploited at their ease in Navan last Saturday.
Louth beat Dublin with great regularity back in the day, albeit only once since the arrival of television. They were the last team to beat the Dubs in championship prior to the appointment of Kevin Heffernan as manager in 1973. We know what happened then. And Louth haven't beaten them since.
Division 4 battle
The contest for promotion to Division 3 is the most unpredictable this weekend, with five teams (though four, in reality) jostling for two spots.
Sligo are in a curious position, in that a draw will guarantee them top spot, while even a one-point loss would leave them almost certain to miss out. Leitrim boast a superior score difference as it stands so any sort of win would suffice unless Wicklow run up a cricket score margin in Fraher Field, combined with an expected Laois win in the English capital.
The Leitrim-Sligo match is one of the most consequential games across the divisions. The Tailteann Cup meeting between the pair last summer went all the way to penalties - Sligo eventually progressing. It's also highly probable that the teams will meet in a straight shootout to qualify for the Sam Maguire Cup, with them likely to collide in the Connacht semi-final.
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