SATURDAY
Division 1 semi-final
Limerick v Kilkenny, SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh, 4.30pm
Division 2A semi-final
Laois v Down, Laois Hire O'Moore Park, 3.30pm
Division 2B semi-final
Donegal v Tyrone, Letterkenny, 1pm
Division 3A semi-final
Sligo v Cavan, Markievicz Park, 2pm
Division 3B semi-final
Longford v Warwickshire, Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, 3.30pm
SUNDAY
Division 1 semi-final
Clare v Tipperary, Laois Hire O'Moore Park, 4pm
ONLINE
Live blogs each day on RTÉ Sport Online and RTÉ News app.
RADIO
Live commentaries and updates on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport, and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta's Spórt an tSathairn and Spórt an Lae.
TV
Live coverage of Limerick v Kilkenny (Saturday, 4.30pm) and Clare v Tipperary (Sunday, 4pm) on TG4.
Highlights and reaction to all the weekend's action on Allianz League Sunday, RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player, 9.30pm.
WEATHER
Saturday: Windy with sunny spells and widespread showers. Some will be heavy and there is a chance of hail. Highest temperatures of 6 to 9 degrees in a moderate to fresh and gusty west to northwest wind.
Sunday: Sunday will start off dry with just isolated showers, however cloud will increase from the west during the morning and rain will spread across the country during the afternoon and evening. For more, visit met.ie.
Limerick and Kilkenny collide again as league semi-finals make final bow
The weekend brings the final set of hurling league semi-finals, for a while anyway. Next year's more streamlined and elitist hurling league concludes with the top two teams in Division 1A progressing to a decider.
Given the extreme ennui around the league of late, it feels like the right move, though, as we know, these things tend to be cyclical.
Angst over the shape and status of the hurling league is a perpetual phenomenon. As the Examiner's Larry Ryan wrote during a bout of it last year: "When it comes to the league, solutions and problems are interchangeable. Like-for-like substitutions.
"Back around the end of the noughties, the silver bullet solution was the restoration of league semi-finals to stop teams losing interest. Now the only way forward is the elimination of league semi-finals, to stop teams losing interest."
Limerick and Kilkenny have contested the last three national finals of note, all of which ended in the same result.
The 2022 All-Ireland final, which turned out to be Brian Cody's last hurrah after 24 years in situ, was the most competitive by far.
Kilkenny hurling traditionally hasn't done moral victories, having enjoyed more than their fair share of actual ones. The 2022 All-Ireland decider was about as close as they came, TJ Reid and co taking a historically great Limerick team to the brink in an enthralling final.
The 2023 league and All-Ireland final defeats were sobering by comparison. In keeping with their tendency towards slow starts last year, it took Limerick 15 minutes to raise a white flag in the league final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. By the time they hit their stride they were remorseless, lashing over 1-13 in a 20-minute spell and running out 11-point winners.
The All-Ireland final was more spectacular again. The champions famously trailed by five points on 42 minutes, after Paddy Deegan's shot broke through a hole in the netting, creating momentary confusion in the crowd before the umpire scrambled for the green flag.
What followed was a half hour of near hurling perfection as Limerick devoured the Leinster champions in front of an occasionally disbelieving crowd. Barely a foot was put wrong in the closing stages, every no-look shot at goal, no matter the distance, sailing between the posts. The jubilant Limerick crowd behind the Canal goal invariably telling the rest of the stadium it was a point before the umpires would confirm it.
It was enough to convince supporters of rival counties that resistence was futile. And that's where we are heading into 2024.
John Kiely's side had appeared to phone it in during the league in 2021 and 2022, winning just three of 10 matches in those campaigns, two of which were against Westmeath and Offaly.
They've been more switched on this year and last, however. They sacrificed home advantage due to ongoing work on the Gaelic Grounds surface, though it didn't make much odds. They edged out Tipp by a point in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, despite conceding three goals and scoring none themselves.
They were content to go to Salthill in the last round and had Shane O'Brien sent off before half-time but still dug out a draw in a fiesty encounter against Galway.
Previously bit-part players have had room to shine this time, Adam English hitting 0-05 and taking the Man of the Match award in Galway.
The week brought confirmation that Kyle Hayes would be available for the champions, the wing-back receiving a two-year suspended sentence having been convicted on two counts of violent disorder for an incident outside a Limerick nightclub in 2019.
Hayes did feature in the win over Dublin in Croke Park though hasn't otherwise.
Sean Finn has been named in the starting line-up - at full-back - for the first time since damaging his cruciate ligament in the defeat to Clare over 10 months ago
Kilkenny are in much the same shape as ever. Their two home games against their traditional provincial rivals were none too impressive, a draw against Wexford and a surprisingly narrow victory over Offaly.
But they sneaked out a one-point win over Cork down south, withstanding a second half rally from Pat Ryan's side. The heavy lead they built up in the first half hour was largely put down to the Rebels' ragged and self-defeating short passing game.
Reid saw action for the first time in the narrow loss to Clare in Ennis, while their Group A programme concluded with a three-point away win over Waterford.
TJ has yet to score from play in his two games, though Adrian Mullen hit 0-05 against Cork, while Eoin Cody has chipped in liberally. As yet, Billy Drennan has only started the Offaly game, being used off the bench otherwise.
Limerick: N Quaid; B Nash, S Finn, A Costelloe; D Byrnes, D Hannon, C O'Neill; W O’Donoghue, C Lynch; G Hegarty, A English, T Morrissey; A Gillane, D Ó Dáilaigh, P Casey.
Kilkenny: E. Murphy; S. Murphy, H. Lawlor, T. Walsh; D. Blanchfield, P. Deegan (c), C. Buckley; C. Kenny, J. Molloy; A. Mullen, J. Donnelly, B. Ryan; E. Cody, T.J. Reid, L. Hogan.
Lohan's Clare in league shake-up despite high profile absentees
The GAA has forsaken the hurling semi-final double header of previous years, presumably deciding it wasn't worth their while asking Clare if they would travel to Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
A strong showing in Group A from Brian Lohan's side, who overcame the absence of Tony Kelly and Shane O'Donnell to rise to the top of the standings.
They hadn't made much of a dent in the league in 2022 or 2023, though they did hit six goals in Wexford Park last year, another warning that the Darragh Egan regime was doomed.
Kelly was ruled out for the league in its entirety after undergoing surgery on an injured ankle over Christmas, while O'Donnell's absence for the league is a longstanding arrangement.
Outside of them, reigning Young Hurler of the Year Mark Rodgers and Aidan McCarthy have carried a fair chunk of the scoring load, while David Fitzgerald hit 0-05 from play in the hard-fought win over Kilkenny.
Seadna Morey came off the bench to 1-01 in the opening-day victory over Cork, which set the tone for their campaign.
Yet again, Lohan got one over old foe Davy Fitz with a narrow win in Waterford, the pair's feud having out-lasted the media interest in revisiting it.
It was Davy Fitz who delivered Clare's last league win in 2016. Before that, you had to go back to the two-in-a-row team of the late 1970s, which contained Ger Loughnane and Johnny Callinan.
Tipperary would have been denied a league semi-final slot on score difference had Galway eked out a win over Limerick last Saturday but the draw means they're in the last-four.
Liam Cahill has been faulted by some for going bull-headed for the league in recent years, ever since Waterford's mysterious implosion in the 2022 Munster championship.
It hasn't deterred him and the Tipp manager made plain at the outset that they were hungry for silverware. In their opener in Parnell Park, they had 0-11 scored inside 15 minutes, the bulk from play.
Against Galway, who inflicted a sickening loss on them in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final, Tipp were much the better team for long stretches though were almost reeled in over the closing quarter.
A late penalty, polished off by the rampant Gearóid O'Connor, made sure of the victory. Jason Forde took over free-taking responsibilities in the latter stages of the Group B campaign.
Jake Morris has continued his ascension towards 'marquee forward' statuts, hitting 1-04 and 1-03 from play against Dublin and Limerick respectively.
Ronan Maher, like Fintan Burke, has been shifted from wing-back to full-back, to cover a long-standing problem position for Tipperary.
Paddy Cadell returned to action in this year's league, the midfielder missing the whole of the 2023 campaign after picking up a cruciate ligament injury against Kilkenny last year. He's on the bench on Sunday but Noel McGrath misses out after returning to action against Antrim.
Clare: E Quilligan; A Hogan, C Cleary, C Leen; D Ryan, J Conlon, C Galvin; D Fitzgerald, D Lohan; C Malone, M Rodgers, P Duggan; K Smyth, I Galvin, D Reidy.
Tipperary: B Hogan; C Morgan, R Maher, M Breen; B O'Mara, R Byrne, C Bowe; W Connors, D Stakelum; D McCormack, G O'Connor, C Stakelum; J Morris, P Maher, J Forde.
Laois get a chance to redeem themselves
It's also semi-final weekend from Division 2 downwards, which might also feel like overkill given we are talking about six-team affairs - five teams in the case of Division 3B.
There is only one semi-final, at least, in each with the top team having progressed to the decider, while second and third battle it out to face them.
Laois finished level on points with Carlow in Division 2A and boasted a superior score difference, but lost out on top spot via the head-to-head. The fact that Tom Mullally's side were already assured of a league final spot may have played some part in their Round 5 loss to Kildare last time out.
Willie Maher sounded a very downbeat note after Laois's home loss to Carlow last month, bluntly acknowledging that the performance "wasn't good enough."
Subsequent double-digit wins over Meath and Kerry have set them on course for another crack. They host Down in Saturday's semi, the Ulster side pipping Kildare to third place by virtue of a marginally superior score difference (to the tune of +4 in the end).
When they met on the weekend, Laois had seven points to spare thanks to goals from Jer Quinlan and Mark Dowling.
Down the divisions, Donegal and Tyrone meet in Letterkenny for the right to face the unbeaten Derry in the Division 2B final.
The Cavan hurlers, who opted out of senior hurling altogether not long ago as they concentrated on organising better at underage, still have a shot at successive promotions as they face Sligo in Markievicz Park. Mayo, boasting a 100% record, are already safely in the final.
In the bottom rung, Warwickshire's six point win over Lancashire last weekend delivered a first win and third spot. They're away to Longford in Pearse Park this Saturday, the hosts having been beaten to the automatic final slot by Fermanagh the last day.
