After a weekend where ten championship games were played, the picture regarding the participants in the Sam Maguire race and the Tailteann Cup became a little clearer, with Clare and Sligo booking their spots in the All-Ireland round-robin, while Meath will be part of the secondary competition after their defeat to Offaly.
As always, we will start with the basics for the new All-Ireland championship format.
They are:
16 teams will qualify for the seeded four-team groups that comprise the All-Ireland SFC group stages.
Eight of those places are reserved for the provincial finalists. The next eight come from the final league rankings, which take promotion/relegation and league finals into account.
Although ranked 20th after the league, as last year's Tailteann Cup winners, Westmeath (beaten by Louth in the Leinster quarter-final) will take one of the 16 places.
And here are the Pot breakdowns for the All-Ireland at this point (one county from each pot will enter one of the four All-Ireland SFC groups):
Pot 1
Connacht SFC winner
Leinster SFC winner
Munster SFC winner
Ulster SFC winner
Pot 2
Connacht SFC runner-up
Leinster SFC runner-up
Munster SFC runner-up
Ulster SFC runner-up
Pot 3
Mayo
Roscommon
Tyrone
12th ranked team
Pot 4
13th ranked team
14th ranked team
15th ranked team
16th ranked team
Ahead of next week's draw (Tuesday 2 May), we know that as provincial finalists - Galway/Sligo in Connacht and Kerry/Clare in Munster - will either be in Pot 1 or Pot 2.
The pairings for Leinster and Ulster will be revealed after their respective semi-finals this weekend.
Roscommon, after their loss to Galway in the Connacht semi, now go into Pot 3 with Mayo and Tyrone. The remaining spot there will be filled by either Monaghan, Dublin or Derry.
It will be Monaghan if they don't get to an Ulster final and Dublin reach the Leinster final;
It will be Dublin if they don't get to the Leinster final and Monaghan reach the Ulster final;
It will be Derry if they don't make the Ulster finale decider and Dublin reach the Leinster final.
Donegal, despite losing to Down, remain in the All-Ireland race and will be in Pot 4, as will Westmeath.
Louth, who finished third in Division 2, could yet end up in the Tailtean Cup if they were to lose to Offaly in the Leinster semi and Kildare and Down both won their respective semis against Dublin and Armagh. On paper, that's an unlikely scenario.
Because Clare, a Division 3 team in 2024, are through to a Munster final, Meath's loss to Offaly means that they are heading for the Tailteann Cup.
And so Offaly, and fellow Division 3 side Down, are still in the provincial race and wins over Louth and Armagh in their respective semis will see them enter Sam Maguire at the expense of Cork and Kildare (both ranked above Meath in the Division 2 league standings) - that is if the Lillywhites don't beat Dublin in their last-four clash at Croke Park.
Defeats for Offaly and Down and it's the Tailteann Cup for both.
As for the aforementioned, it is a 17-team tournament (Kilkenny play in the JFC) and is being played on a similar format to the Sam Maguire: four four-team groups, with the group winners advancing directly to quarter-finals. The four second-placed teams and three best third-placed teams, plus New York, after their Connacht exit to Sligo, will then contest preliminary quarter-finals.
Tailtean Cup line-up: Limerick, Tipperary, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow, Longford, Meath, Carlow, Cavan, Fermanagh, Leitrim, New York (preliminary quarter-finals), London, Waterford, Antrim, two from Cork, Kildare, Down, Offaly.
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