The stage is set for the last four of the O'Neill's All-Ireland Senior Singles semi-finals in men's and ladies grades.
All four semi-finals are down for decision in Kingscourt, Co Cavan tomorrow, with the meeting of Galway's former champion Martin Mulkerrins and last year's runner-up, former Clare U21 hurler Diarmaid Nash, topping the bill.
Nash, twice a finalist, comes in to the last four off the back of an impressive 21-11, 21-4 win over Kilkenny's Peter Funchion last time out.
Meanwhile, Mulkerrins saw off Meath's Brian Carroll in last weekend's quarter-final and feels that he is beginning to his his stride at the right time.
"I think all of the training has started to come together, the championship was my main focus from the start of the season and to have won my first pro stop, won the ranking tournament in Breacach [Co Tyrone] and to have performed well in the John Gaffney Memorial, the Montana pro stop and the Irish Nationals have been all positive," Mulkerrins stated.
"I view them all as stepping stones and preparation to peak for this. Although tournaments are nice to win, championship and three games to 21 is completely different.
"The tournaments and my training have been to keep sharp on the court but also to build the conditioning that is necessary and I think that has all come together in the past few weeks.
"Elsewhere, holder Robbie McCarthy of Westmeath takes on Armagh's Charly Shanks, the 2017 winner in another intriguing clash.
Shanks (36) had shown patchy form on the pre-championship tournament circuit but showed his class in seeing off Clare's Colin Crehan, the current doubles champion along with Nash, in the last round.
However, the Lurgan man will need to be at his brilliant best if he is to turn back the Mullingar maestro, who has been in sensational form over the last 12 months, culminating in his comfortable victory at the Irish Nationals in Mayo in mid-February.
First up in Kingscourt is ladies champion Martina McMahon, who meets the winner of Roscommon's Fiona Tully and Kildare teenager Mollie Dagg, who play off this evening .The Limerick lefty will be hot favourite to advance and anything less than a straight games win would be regarded as a seismic upset in form.
That clash will be followed by the meeting of Cork's Catriona Casey, the current champion, and Antrim's former world champion Aisling Reilly, who is seeking to return to her first final since 2016, having undergone surgery for a career-threatening shoulder injury in the interim.
"I don't think I’ve quite reached where I was before yet," said Reilly.
"The standard has risen and I need to match that, which I think I can. I could definitely improve aspects of my game.
"My goals in the last couple of years have definitely changed. If you’d have told me two years ago I’d be competing regularly and playing decent enough while improving game after game, I’d have bitten your hand off but now I’m focused on pushing on another bit.
"I think my motivations over the past few years have changed very slightly. I treated handball before as a full-time job on top of a full-time job. This year my motivation was to compete in every tournament and play steady handball.
"I’ve achieved that and with every tournament that has passed I’ve realised that I’m not that far off which is massively motivating for me."
All matches will be streamed live on the GAA Handball social media channels, starting at 2.30pm.
