SATURDAY RESULTS
Division 1 Group B
Division 2A
Division 3B
Lancashire 3-11 Cavan 0-14
Longford 2-10 Warwickshire 0-06
SUNDAY FIXTURES
Division 1 Group A
Wexford v Clare, Chadwick's Wexford Park, 1.45pm
Cork v Westmeath, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 1.45pm
Galway v Limerick, Pearse Stadium, 2.30pm
Division 1 Group B
Waterford v Antrim, Fraher Field, 1pm
Laois v Kilkenny, O'Moore Park, 2pm
Division 2A
Derry v Kildare, Celtic Park, 2pm
Carlow v Down, Netwatch Cullen Park, 2pm
Division 2B
Wicklow v London, Aughrim, 2pm
Sligo v Tyrone, Markievicz Park, 2pm
Division 3A
Monaghan v Louth, Cloghan, 12.30pm
Fermanagh v Roscommon, Derrylin, 2pm
Armagh v Mayo, Athletic Grounds, 2pm
ONLINE
Live blog on RTÉ Sport Online and the RTÉ News app.
RADIO
Live commentaries and updates from around the grounds on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport (2pm); RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta's Spórt an Lae from 12.25pm.
TV
Live coverage of Galway v Limerick on Sunday on TG4 (throw-in, 2.30pm). Available to international audiences on GAAGO. Highlights and reaction to all the weekend's action on Allianz League Sunday, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, 9.30pm.
WEATHER
Sunday: Early frost will clear quickly on Sunday morning to leave a dry day with varying amounts of cloud. The best chance for prolonged spells of sunshine will be across the west and northwest of the country. Top temperatures on Sunday of between 5 and 8 degrees in moderate east or southeast winds. For more, visit met.ie.
Champions return to Salthill
The last time Limerick travelled to Salthill for a league game, the All-Ireland champions were soundly beaten and John Kiely departed in foul humour, accusing the home side of "simulation".
He subsequently retracted the accusation after viewing video footage, apologising to Galway for lobbing the incendiary diving charge into the public realm and saying that his eyes had deceived him the first time.
The match was generally of a piece with Limerick's efforts in the 2021 and 2022 league campaigns. The decisive win over Clare suggests they might be a tad more tuned-up for this year's league, possibly fed up of listening to how they don't care about it.
The six-point margin at the end was deeply misleading as Limerick ran the bench once the contest was settled allowing Clare to put undue respectability on the eventual scoreline. Cian Lynch made his first start in almost a year but Micheál Houlihan - son of former midfielder Mike - made the headlines, hitting 0-12, four from play. Aside from that, there's little enough new to learn about Limerick.
There remains no sign of Aaron Gillane in the Limerick squad, the corner-forward reputed to have been playing soccer last weekend.
After that Salthill game, Galway wound up winning the 2021 league (sort of, jointly held with Kilkenny), then trotted out of the championship bizarrely early, after disappointing losses to Dublin and Waterford. Joe Canning announced that his inter-county hurling career days were at an end after the latter defeat.
Like his immediate predecessors, Henry Shefflin has been trying to launch the next generation of Galway hurlers, though the narrative has persisted that they're dependent on the 2017 crop.
Jarlath Mannion and Donal O'Shea both popped points against Wexford but were otherwise peripheral. Evan Niland has racked up big scoring numbers on frees, though did chip in with 0-03 from play against Cork. Loughrea's Martin McManus impressed on his league debut against the Rebels, hitting 1-03.
Brian Concannon, not a member of the class of '17, hasn't started either league game, but exploded into things on his arrival, sparking the winning surge against Wexford and firing a goal against Cork. Other post 2017 arrivals Jack Grealish and Darren Morrissey have firmly established themselves as key figures in defence.
For Jackie Tyrrell, there's little to learn from Limerick this weekend - "they're an animal, we know they're going to be an animal" - but the match could be a fascinating barometer of where Galway are at.
"This will be one of the acid tests that Henry will have been looking at," Tyrell said on the RTÉ GAA podcast.
"They've had a decent record against Limerick in the league. He'll be looking for a couple of things. We shipped four goals in the Cork in Salthill. That doesn't happen at the weekend. He wants a really good performance from his defence.
"And if I'm Henry, I'm going to overload on the side of new guys. We know what Gearóid Mc can do, what David Burke can do, Conor Whelan and the Mannions. We know these guys.
"What can Kevin Cooney do? What can Martin McManus do? What can Evan Niland do, outside of frees? Great if he scores nine or ten from frees but is he working hard, is he putting pressure on, is he winning hard ball, is he getting points from play?
"That's what he'll be looking for. Him winning at the weekend, it's not the be-all and end-all. He'll be looking for a really strong defensive performance. And which of these four or five guys that's putting up their hand can I seriously consider for my starting team come championship time?"
Another inter-provincial contest in the south-east
In a relative low-stakes league season, we're grateful for any talking points. Our hurling columnist Shane McGrath helpfully stepped into the breach this week by suggesting that four "if not five" of the top five hurling counties at the moment are in Munster.
This, needless to say, provoked a response from the east. Tyrrell was inclined to draw people's attention to last summer's All-Ireland semi-finals, when Kilkenny destroyed Clare, while Galway - admittedly not the most Leinster of Leinster counties - took Limerick almost to the brink the following day.
On the Smaller Fish podcast, they were even more forthright, Brian Carroll suggesting his RTÉ colleague "must have been smoking something".
All of which is a rather shaky tee-up for the latest meeting of Wexford and Clare in the league - they're in the different provinces, you see.
In a century of hurling, this pair almost never collided in championship. Now, they seem to play every other week.
Wexford have typically had the upper hand in league, though emphatically not in championship. Darragh Egan's side were desperately disappointing against Galway in Round 1 but did at least manage to avoid drawing with Westmeath last time out.
Considering the whipping Clare put on Westmeath in the opening round, Wexford's 11-point win in Cusack Park was comparatively modest.
Clare were perceived to have thrown everyone off the scent with a humdrum effort in last year's league, but Lohan sounded downbeat after their deeply flattering six-point loss to Limerick a fortnight ago.
"You want to be better than that, that was really poor," Lohan told reporters afterwards, adding it "started badly and didn't go well."
Clare should be improved this weekend, with Tony Kelly and John Conlon reported to be returning to the starting line-up.
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