Saturday
Leinster Senior Football Championship quarter-final
Nowlan Park, 19:00, Dublin v Laois, C Branigan (Down)
Dublin have already defended their Division 1 League title and now they’re moving on to the defence of their Leinster crown.
Few are expecting the Dubs to slip up in a province they have dominated and are looking to win for the eleventh time in 12 years.
The GAA have decided to take the All-Ireland champions out of Croke Park in the Championship for the first time since 2006, when they squeezed past Longford by two points at Pearse Park.
The good weather promised so far hasn’t managed to attract fans, with Nowlan Park in Kilkenny far from sold out. Laois supporters may well be staying away as they fear a hammering for their side, who haven’t beaten the Dubs in six attempts since they came out on top in 2003.
Dublin haven’t played since beating Kerry with plenty to spare in the League final. Laois have had the benefit of an outing, defeating Division 4 Wicklow, but not in particularly convincing fashion, in a first round game last month.
Weather: Sunny, 23 degrees
Coverage: Live on RTÉ Radio 1
Next Up: The winner gets a Leinster semi-final with Meath or Louth, the loser has an All-Ireland qualifier on June 18 to look forward to.
Lory Meagher Cup final
Croke Park, 13:30, Louth v Sligo, M Murtagh (Westmeath)
(Extra-time to be played if necessary)
A quick look at the final standings in the League will tell you why Louth are favourites for the Lory Meagher title - they finished mid-table in Division 3A, with Sligo rock-bottom in 3B, which makes them the lowest ranked team in the country.
The Wee County have lost four times in Croke Park on final day since appearing in the first Nicky Rackard Cup final in 2005 (at the time that was the lowest tier on hurling’s ladder before the advent of the Lory Meagher).
They beat Sligo when they last met, though the Yeats County made it competitive despite playing for much of the game with 14 men.
Weather: Sunny, 16 degrees
Coverage: Live TG4
Nicky Rackard Cup final
Croke Park, 15:30, Armagh v Mayo, J Murphy (Limerick)
(Extra-time to be played if necessary)
Armagh are looking for their second piece of silverware of the season, having collected the Division 2B League title earlier in the year.
Since then Mayo have been boosted by the return of multiple football All Star winner Keith Higgins to the panel. Higgins has often said that he prefers hurling to football, but he devotes most of his time to the big ball game in pursuit of Sam Maguire.
Weather: Sunny 16 degrees
Coverage: Live TG4
Christy Ring Cup final
Croke Park, 17:30, Antrim v Meath, J O’Brien (Tipperary)
(Extra-time to be played if necessary)
Antrim are hoping to bounce straight back out of the Christy Ring Cup and back into the Liam MacCarthy competition following their relegation last season.
They had spent ten years at hurling’s top table following their 2006 Christy Ring Cup win, though the past few season have been tough on the Saffrons.
After 2015’s demotion they failed to get out of Division 2A this year, prompting PJ O’Mullan to step down as manager. They are also doing without arguably their two best players, Liam Watson and Neil McManus, though Ciaran Clarke (above) has stepped up well.
Meath were semi-finalists in this competition three years in-a-row between 2012 and 2014 and this year they made the decider at last. They too are missing a leading light, with star forward Jack Regan having suffered a broken wrist in the League.
Weather: Sunny, 16 degrees
Coverage: Live TG4
Sunday
Ulster Senior Football Championship quarter-final
Clones, 14:00, Monaghan v Down, C Lane (Cork)
The Ulster Championship hasn’t lived up to it’s billing as football’s most competitive province so far, with three one-sided wins in three games. On paper Monaghan against Down could be heading the same way.
Monaghan have won two of the last three Ulster titles, they put together a credible series of performances in Division 1 of the League to retain their top flight status and haven’t fallen at the first hurdle since 2011.
Down, by contrast, under first-year manager Eamonn Burns, lost all of their Division 1 games on the way to a demoralising relegation, haven’t won Ulster since 1994 and haven’t even won a game in the province since 2013.
Monaghan boss Malachy O’Rourke has proven himself to be one of the cutest operators in the game and in Conor McManus he has one of the form forwards in football over the past three seasons.
Weather: Sunny, 22 degrees
Coverage: Live RTÉ 1 Television
Next Up: Donegal or Fermanagh await the winner in an Ulster semi-final with the losers having an All-Ireland qualifier date on June 25.
Leinster Senior Hurling Championship quarter-finals
Cusack Park (Mullingar), 15:30, Westmeath v Galway, D Kirwan (Cork)
It could be argued that the gap between these two teams isn’t as wide as it first appears. Galway, after all, were regelated to Division 1B this year and they were almost joined in hurling’s second tier by Westmeath, who lost out to Laois in a play off.
And while the Tribesmen have been kicking their heels since losing to Cork in the relegation play-off, the Lake County were moving through the gears in the Leinster round-robin group, emerging following wins over Offaly, Kerry and Carlow.
There’s an argument too for saying they would have been better off finishing second - that honour went to Laois and the prize for that was an apparently more manageable quarter-final with Laois.
Westmeath have never beaten Galway in Championship hurling, though they made them sweat when they pushed them to within seven points four years ago (above).
This all adds up to a Galway side that should be forewarned and aiming, in their first Championship game since ousting Anthony Cunningham as manager after last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Kilkenny, for routine passage.
Weather: Sunny, 22 degrees
Next Up: Winning sets up a Leinster semi-final against Laois or Offaly, with the losers in All-Ireland qualifier action on July 2.
O’Connor Park, 15:30, Offaly v Laois, J Ryan (Tipperary)
If Offaly’s form this season has been wretched, Laois’s has been even worse.
The Faithful County have lost to Kerry and Westmeath already in competitive games during 2016, ensuring they only survived in Division 1B by the skin of their teeth and just made it out of the Leinster round-robin group by a narrow margin.
But losing to Westmeath was a blessing in disguise it turns out. The Lake County topped the group and earned a Leinster quarter-final against Galway while Offaly were paired with a Laois side that should hold no fears for them.
The O’Moore men finished bottom of Division 1B and have already lost to Offaly by eight points in the League.
The Seamus ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett-inspired inspired hurling revival in Laois appears to have stalled and if the free-scoring Shane Dooley continues in his rich vein of form for the Faithful it could go into full-on reverse.
Weather: Sunny with scattered showers, 23 degrees
Next Up: Galway or Westmeath will be the winners’ Leinster semi-final opponents while the defeated will hit the qualifier trail on July 2.
Munster Senior Hurling Championship semi-final
Semple Stadium, 16:00, Clare v Waterford, J Owens (Wexford)
The hope that this might be a beautiful game amid beautiful sunshine in front of a packed house at the home of hurling may prove forlorn.
The weather forecast suggests that the sun will hang in the sky over Tipperary at least, but only 25,000 punters are expected in Thurles for the third high-stakes meeting in five weeks between Waterford and Clare.
And that familiarity between these teams may well mean that we are in for a tactical grind rather than a freewheeling classic - more akin to the drawn Division 1 League final at the start of May, than the more entertaining replay won by Clare in dramatic fashion late on seven days later.
Both teams badly want to win this game as a Munster final appearance would rubber-stamp their credentials for an appearance at Croke Park later in the year.
Regardless of the outcome though, this pair appear to capable of making an All-Ireland semi-final at least. Sunday in Thurles will dictate the path they take towards Dublin in August.
Clare are pulling themselves together after the two-year slump that followed their Liam MacCarthy win in 2013. Waterford’s brilliant bunch of young players have progressed again this year under manager Derek McGrath.
McGrath and Banner boss Davy Fitzgerald are both tactically astute and can be expected to line out their teams defensively, early on at least, which could contribute to more heat than light.
Weather: Sunny, 22 degrees
Coverage: Live RTÉ 1 Television and RTÉ Radio 1
Next Up: The prize for the winners in a Munster final against either Limerick or Tipperary on July 10 with July 2 the date for the losers’ All-Ireland qualifier opener.
Highlights of all of this weekend's big provincial Championship games will be on the Sunday Game, RTÉ2, 9.30
All games streamed live worldwide via GAAGO
