SATURDAY'S RESULTS
Division 1 Group B
Westmeath 2-18 Antrim 1-15
Limerick 0-26 Tipperary 3-16
Division 2A
Kildare 1-21 Kerry 1-14
Division 3A
Cavan 2-13 Armagh 0-16
Division 3B
Fermanagh 1-13 Lancashire 1-08
Longford 2-15 Leitrim 1-07
SUNDAY
Division 1 Group A
Offaly v Cork, Glenisk O'Connor Park, 1315
Clare v Kilkenny, Cusack Park, 1330
Waterford v Wexford, Walsh Park, 1530
Division 1 Group B
Galway v Dublin, Pearse Stadium, 1330
Division 2A
Carlow v Down, Netwatch Cullen Park, 1400
Meath v Laois, Páirc Tailteann, 1400
Division 2B
London v Tyrone, Ruislip, 1300
Roscommon v Donegal, Hyde Park, 1300
Tyrone v Wicklow, Healy Park, 1300
Division 3A
Sligo v Monaghan, Markievicz Park, 1400
Mayo v Louth, Connacht Centre of Excellence, Bekan, 1400
ONLINE
Live blogs on RTÉ Sport Online and RTÉ News app.
RADIO
Live commentaries and updates on RTÉ Radio 1's Sunday Sport, and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta's Spórt an Lae.
TV
TG4 will have live coverage of Clare-Kilkenny (1.30pm throw-in) and Waterford-Wexford (3.30pm throw-in). Offaly v Cork will be shown live on GAAGO (1.15pm throw-in) with deferred coverage on TG4 later on.
Highlights and reaction to all the weekend's action on Allianz League Sunday, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, 9.30pm.
WEATHER
Sunday: Some bright spells in the northwest at first today, Sunday, but another mostly cloudy day overall with outbreaks of rain and drizzle, turning persistent at times in the east. Mist and hill fog about too with highest temperatures of 7 to 10 degrees.
North to northeast winds will be mostly light to moderate but will continue strong at times near northern and eastern coasts. Coastal flooding is possible due to unusually high tides.. For more, visit met.ie.
Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Permutation station
No need to get bogged down in that here as my colleague Eoin Ryan has outlined the various possibilities already.
Dubs in last chance saloon
While the Limerick-Tipperary game was the glamour tie of the weekend, the most consequential game in Group B is set for Salthill, where Dublin have a final chance to rescue a wretched league campaign and preserve their hopes of sneaking into the stacked Division 1A next year.
Micheál Donoghue returns to his native county having shipped double-digit losses to both Limerick and Tipperary. Another defeat here and they are almost certainly bound for 1B, with the fourth-placed finisher in Group A unlikely to have a worse record by the close of play.
The Dubs have had a bizarrely good record against Galway in the past decade and a half - and built up a massively heavy lead in last summer's championship game before being reeled in for a draw.
However, this hasn't really extended to games in Salthill, where they've never won in the modern era - losing championship games there in 2018 and 2022 and the past four league encounters in 2010, 2012, 2014 and 2019.
The narrative around Dublin hurling has gone inescapably gloomy this year, with Daly era stalwart Ryan O'Dwyer telling the Mirror that they were slipping "back to the dark ages", aka, the pre-2008 dispensation when they were a virtual second-tier outfit.
For the Limerick match, they did have Donal Burke, Danny Sutcliffe and Chris Crummey back in the starting line-up and still found themselves overawed. Though they likely won't be the only ones this year.
Galway are also casting their eyes back to the old days, the more recent old days, with news that Johnny Glynn is back in training with Henry Shefflin's squad.
Glynn, who's been an inspirational presence for the New York footballers over the last couple of years, made his last appearance for Galway in that infamous loss to Dublin in Parnell Park in 2019 - which ended with the Galway backroom team crouched over mobile phones in the dugout, frantically checking the score in Wexford and eventually registering, in disbelief, that they were out of the championship.
Shefflin is presumably keen to add Glynn's ballast and famed aerial ability to a Galway forward line which is increasingly on the small and knacky side. He will not be involved on Sunday but may be down the line.
Galway: Darach Fahy; Jack Grealish, Fintan Burke, Padraic Mannion; Adrian Touhey, Cianan Fahy, Daithí Burke; David Burke, Seán Linnane; Gavin Lee, Tom Monaghan, Conor Cooney; Evan Niland, Conor Whelan, Jason Flynn.
Dublin: Eddie Gibbons; James Smyth, Paddy Smyth, John Bellew; Conor Donohoe, Chris Crummey, Daire Gray; Conor Burke, Seán Gallagher; Ronan Hayes, Donál Burke, Brian Hayes; Danny Sutcliffe, Cian O'Sullivan, Seán Currie.
Westmeath: Noel Conaty; Darragh Egerton, Tommy Doyle, Conor Gaffney; Jack Gillen, Kevin Regan, Johnny Bermingham; Robbie Greville, Shane McGovern; Niall Mitchell, David Williams, Owen McCabe; Killian Doyle, Joey Boyle, David O'Reilly.
Antrim: Tiernan Smyth; Phelim Duffin, Ryan McCloskey, Paddy Burke; Scott Walsh, Ryan McGarry, Niall O'Connor; Eoghan Campbell, Enda Óg McGarry; Ronan McAteer, Rian McMullan, Niall McKenna; Conal Cunning, Conor McCann, Fred McCurry.
Battle for fourth spot in the south-east
A match being billed as a shootout for fourth spot in Group A and, more crucially, the probable seventh spot in next year's Division 1A as Wexford head to Walsh Park.
The situation is slightly less urgent for the visitors, who do at least have a final home game against Cork to rescue fourth spot, should they lose on Sunday.
In Keith Rossiter's first campaign, Wexford have thus far been operating like Ireland at Italia 90 in disguise, namely, drawing whenever possible.
Jack O'Connor launched a stunning late point to secure a creditable late draw at home to Clare. They had previously opened with a 2-16 apiece draw with Kilkenny in Nowlan Park, a continuation of their recent good record against the Leinster champions.
In between, the draw with a somewhat resurgent Offaly would have been regarded as a hiccup, though they did finish the game with 13 players after O'Connor's extremely contentious sending off, which was subsequently overturned on appeal.
Wexford have some form here. They drew three matches in the Leinster round-robin en route to their first provincial title in 15 years in 2019.
The current Waterford manager was of course over them then. Davy Fitz was spraying around 'f-bombs' fairly liberally to reporters in the wake of their two-point loss to Cork - we've since been assured that he was less angry and more upbeat than it came across in print.
The Déise boss was proud of his side's late rally, whittling the deficit down from 10 to two points in the finish.
"If that was over the last five or six years and at different times they're going down ten, then they'd go down 15 or 20," Fitzgerald announced, in keeping with his current strategy of pretending that the two Covid years never happened.
Their last meeting of any description was in the 2022 league semi-final in Nowlan Park, where Waterford inflicted an unmerciful 19-point hammering on their neighbours, shortly before the Liam Cahill era abruptly imploded that summer.
Waterford: Shaun O'Brien; PJ Fanning, Mark Fitzgerald, Conor Ryan; Jack Fagan, Billy Nolan, Darragh Long; Paddy Leavey, Calum Lyons; Kieran Bennett, Jamie Barron, Peter Hogan; Sean Walsh, Mikey Kiely, Jack Prendergast.
Wexford: Mark Fanning; Shane Reck, Conor Foley, Niall Murphy; Simon Donohoe, Damien Reck, Eoin Ryan; Conor Hearne, Corey Byrne Dunbar; Jack O'Connor, Lee Chin, Cathal Dunbar; Richie Lawlor, Séamus Casey, Kevin Foley.
Kilkenny bound for Ennis; Offaly host Cork
Clare and Kilkenny collide in Cusack Park, no doubt a dress rehearsal for their annual All-Ireland semi-final meeting down the line.
Kilkenny have taken great delight in derailing Clare in the last two All-Ireland semi-finals, and sticking it to the Munster hurling supremacists in the process.
The pair occupy the top two spots in Group A and would seem to be set fair to book their place in Division 1A next year. Clare's record is slightly more impressive thus far, given they have exclusively faced Liam MacCarthy opposition so far with a game against Offaly to come.
They've already demonstrated their strength in depth in attack in the absence of Tony Kelly, who is in a race to be fit for the Munster championship.
Mark Rodgers racked up 0-13, mostly from frees, against Cork, before Fitzgibbon duties kept him out of action against Waterford. David Fitzgerald, meanwhile, had a bumper day against Wexford, hitting 0-05 from play in what was an underwhelming 0-16 point haul overall.
Kilkenny's most significant league performance was their one-point win away to Cork, where they completely sat on the hosts for the opening half hour, racking up a big lead before clinging on in the finish.
Adrian Mullen hit 0-05 from play in a fine display, before notching 0-06 against Offaly. Billy Drennan and Eoin Cody also appear to be motoring well, while the 36-year old TJ Reid has yet to see a minute of action.
The Ballyhale great has been named at centre-forward for the trip to Ennis, with Drennan held in reserve, Dicksboro's Harry Shine named at 15.
Speaking on the RTÉ GAA podcast, former Antrim hurler Neil McManus still reckons that Kilkenny have the edge on Clare.
"I think Kilkenny will be very very conscious that they have Clare's number," he said.
"They beat them in the last two All-Ireland semi-finals. They are jostling each other to see who is the big contender to Limerick. I think Kilkenny have a better panel.
"I think we'll see Paddy Deegan, we’ll see Huw Lawlor. We might even see a little of TJ. It’s about that stage of the league that he usually makes reappearance.
"I think Kilkenny will go at it hammer and tongs and it would be a very significant win because the game is Ennis.
"For Clare, we haven’t seen Eibhear Quilligan, Tony Kelly, Shane O’Donnell. Those guys could be back in too and it could turn into a brilliant encounter if we see both teams pushing hard for it."
In Tullamore, Offaly are potentially dangerous opponents for a Cork side seeking points. It's been an encouraging league thus far for Johnny Kelly's charges, who were unlucky not to beat Wexford and led by six points at half-time against Kilkenny before the hosts turned on the afterburners.
Clare: Eamonn Foudy; Paul Flanagan, Conor Cleary, Adam Hogan; Diarmuid Ryan, John Conlon, Conor Leen; Cian Galvin, Darragh Lohan; David Fitzgerald, David Reidy, Peter Duggan; Mark Rodgers, Aidan McCarthy, Kevin Smyth.
Kilkenny: Eoin Murphy; Mikey Butler, Huw Lawlor, Tommy Walsh; David Blanchfield, Richie Reid, Shane Murphy; Darragh Corcoran, Mikey Carey; Adrian Mullen, TJ Reid, Paddy Deegan; Cian Kenny, Eoin Cody, Harry Shine.
Offaly: Mark Troy; Jack Clancy, Ben Conneely, Sam Bourke; Jason Sampson, David King, Killian Sampson; Cathal King, David Nally; Dan Ravenhill, Eimhin Kelly, Charlie Mitchell; Eoghan Cahill, Oisín Kelly, Adam Screeney.
Cork: Patrick Collins, Niall O' Leary, Damien Cahalane, Eoin Downey; Ger Millerick, Ciaran Joyce, Robert Downey; Brian Roche, Luke Meade; Declan Dalton, Conor Lehane, Seamus Harnedy; Jack O Connor, Alan Connolly, Shane Barrett.
Division 2A shakedown: Carlow on course
The Joe McDonagh champions reign supreme in Division 2A, beating Laois by five points in a top-of-the-table clash in O'Moore Park the last day out.
Coming on top of lop-sided wins over Kerry and Meath, the form suggests Tom Mullally's team are on course for a 100% record in the division.
They host Ronan Sheehan's Down in Cullen Park this Sunday, who sit third but were frustrated by bottom placed Kildare a fortnight ago.
Willie Maher sounded very downbeat after the loss to Carlow, insisting afterwards that "it's not good enough." They head for Navan to face a Meath side who shipped three goals in a seven-point loss in Tralee in Round 3.
