The provincial championships continue to gather pace with three games down for decision in Leinster and one in Munster.
RTÉ hurling pundit Dónal Óg Cusack has had his say on Sunday's fixtures.
SUNDAY
Leinster SHC
Galway v Kilkenny, Pearse Stadium, 2pm
Pearse Stadium gives us the chance to see Brian Cody pit his wits against that one extra son that they never had in Henry Shefflin.
Ten All-Ireland medals isn’t a bad start to a manager’s CV but Henry will know that when you’re up against the one fella that claims he taught you most of what you know then all bets are off.
Kilkenny are going for three in a row in Leinster, have got themselves warmed up with games against Westmeath and Laois. We know more about where they are going than we do about Galway.
Galway wilted in a worrying way against Wexford the first day out. We don’t know yet what they learned from that.
Henry is the ninth Galway manager that Brian Cody has faced in his 200-year reign. Some have given him a lot of trouble, others not so much.
For the time being we’re going to assume Cody still knows, and has, a bit more than his best student does.
Verdict: Kilkenny
Westmeath v Dublin, TEG Cusack Park, 3pm
Dublin travel to Westmeath with the happy feeling of having two wins under their belt. Westmeath have the hurling-has-to-be-cruel-to-be-kind feeling of having been battered by Kilkenny and Galway in the first two rounds.
Both sides would take encouragement from a single-digit Dublin win.
Verdict: Dublin
Laois v Wexford, O'Moore Park, 2.30pm
Laois were competitive against Dublin in the first round and shipped a bad beating against Kilkenny.
It's a long, long time since they beat Wexford in championship hurling, and going to be still longer when Sunday evening comes around.
Verdict: Wexford
Munster SHC
Cork v Clare, FBD Semple Stadium, 2pm
How Cork respond mentally and physically to having been steamrolled like tarmacadam by Limerick on their first day out will be interesting.
It’s a distant memory since Clare were the whipping boys of Munster, they were to make the likes of Cork feel better about themselves. Last Sunday Clare made Tipperary feel the way Cork felt when they played Limerick.
Beating Tipp doesn’t make them All-Ireland favourites but they looked confident, they had a game-plan and they have Shane O’Donnell and Peter Duggan back. They’ll get even better as the weeks go by.
Cork have all that speed in attack. They need their forwards buzzing just as enthusiastically when they don’t have the ball. That’s when they really need to sting like bees and less of floating and tackling like butterflies.
Sort that out, put the square pegs into square holes at the back and they might – just might – get a badly-needed win.
Verdict: Cork
Dónal Óg Cusack was speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland.
Watch Galway v Kilkenny in the Leinster Hurling Championship on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player on Sunday from 1.15pm with live blog on all games RTE.ie/Sport and RTÉ News app. Cork v Clare in the Munster Hurling Championship is available to stream worldwide on GAAGO.ie.
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