Weekend football preview

The fixtures

Meath v Offaly Sunday 2 pm (Live on RTE 2)

Clare v Waterford Sunday 3pm

Louth v Longford Sunday 3.50 pm

Antrim v Tyrone Sunday 4pm (Live on RTE 2)

The previews

Meath v Offaly

Considering the Leinster championship has been completely dominated by the Dubs in recent seasons, it is easy to forget that Meath have contested two of the last three All-Ireland semi-finals, which is more can be said for their more illustrious opponents from the capital.

Everyone knows what Meath bring to the table; they’re solid, doughty, uncomplicated and usually very tough to beat. But the current Meath forward line also has plenty of class in the likes of Joe Sheridan, Cian Ward and Stephen Bray and with Shane O’Rourke making his first championship start since 2007, Eamon O’ Brien can afford to hold the lively Brian Farrell in reserve.

They face an Offaly team on Sunday that apart from a division four league title in 2008, has failed to make any sort of impact since their Leinster Final appearance two years previously. In fact, they haven’t won a game in the championship since defeating Carlow in 2007.

Shane O’Rourke returns to championship action after two injury-blighted campaigns

The faithful county have had a very high manager turnover in recent times and as a result they have struggled to gain momentum and have been blighted by inconsistency. They struggled in Division Three of the league this year and finished on six points, enough to retain that status for next year.

David Egan will miss out for Tom Cribbin’s side in Portlaoise on Sunday but star forward Niall McNamee is fit to take his place after recovering from a thigh strain.

Gary O’Brien and Graham Reilly will make their debuts for the Royals, who are without injured quintet Cormac McGuiness, Kevin Reilly, Niall McKeigue, Jamie Queeney and Brian Sheridan.

Teams:

Meath: Paddy O’Rourke; Chris O’Connor, Anthony Moyles, Eoghan Harrington; Gary O’Brien, Michael Burke, Caoimhín King; Nigel Crawford, Mark Ward; Seamus Kenny, Joe Sheridan, Graham Reilly; Cian Ward, Shane O’Rourke, Stephen Bray.

Offaly: A Mulhall; B Darby, S Brady, P Sullivan; S Sullivan, R Dalton, K Slattery; C McManus, J Coughlan; N Darby, B Connor, S Ryan; K Casey, J Reynolds, N McNamee.

Odds:

Meath 1/3, Offaly 10/3, Draw 8/1

JOE Prediction: Meath to emerge comfortable winners.

Antrim v Tyrone

Like Kerry, there seems to be a general perception about Tyrone that they are a team in decline. It is a feeling based on their no-show against Cork in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final and was fuelled by their poor league form which will see them plying their trade in the second tier of the NFL next season.

But like the Kingdom last week, a glance at their team sheet for this fixture may well force a few of their detractors to eat their words. Justin McMahon, Davy Harte, Ryan McMenamin, Brian Dooher, Sean Cavanagh and Stephen O’Neill are amongst the numerous seasoned campaigners in Mickey Harte’s line-up who have plenty of medals jangling in their pockets and who know what it takes to win an All-Ireland title.

In light of their poor form in the spring and with Cavanagh, Dooher and O’Neill in particular without much game time behind them this year, they would have liked an easier task than a trip to Belfast to face a plucky Antrim side who have come on in leaps and bounds in recent years, culminating in their Ulster final defeat to the Red Hands last summer and their appearance in the Division 3 NFL final this year, where they were defeated by Sligo.

Liam Bradley’s men are backboned by a number of the All-Ireland final winning St. Gall’s side including Colin Brady, Sean Kelly and Kevin Niblock, who returns to the fold after a six week lay off with a shoulder injury. Michael Magill has been excluded from the panel after a breach of discipline.

Justin McMahon is fit to start for Tyrone and will play alongside championship newcomer Martin Swift in the full back line while Ryan McMenamin will take the place of the injured Conor Gormley at centre back.

Teams:

Antrim: J Finucane; C Brady, A Douglas, K O’Boyle; T Scullion, J Crozier, S Kelly; A Gallagher, B Herron; T O’Neill, K Niblock, J Loughrey; P Cunningham, M McCann, T McCann.

Tyrone: P McConnell; M Swift, Justin McMahon, D Carlin; D Harte, R McMenamin, P Jordan; K Hughes, C Cavanagh; B Dooher, S Cavanagh, Joe McMahon; M Penrose, S O’Neill, O Mulligan.

Odds:

Antrim 7/2, Tyrone 3/10, Draw 9/1

JOE Prediction: The Saffrons will put it up to Mickey Harte’s men, but Tyrone’s class will prevail in the end. Tyrone to win with five points to spare.

Waterford v Clare

I doubt if many Waterford fans ever envisaged a day when their football team would be favourites going into a Munster Championship fixture, but that will be the case on Sunday when the Deise face Clare in Dungarvan.

Such a status is based on John Owens’ side march to the Division Four league final, where they were ultimately defeated by Limerick. During the campaign, Waterford overcame their opponents on Sunday by nine points, but such a margin of defeat is unlikely to repeat itself this time around.

Clare’s Shane Hickey feels the force of Waterford’s Tom Prendergast during the sides’ league clash earlier this year

That defeat aside, Clare had a relatively productive league campaign, finishing in third behind the finalists. Mayo’s Liam McHale has come into the coaching set-up and a number of players from All-Ireland club finalists Kilmurry-Ibrickane feature in the squad.

With Cork and Kerry both on the other side of the draw, there is a real opportunity for one of these sides to make it to a Munster final, with Limerick awaiting the winners in the semis.

Owens makes two changes from the Division four decider with Eamon Walsh coming into defence instead of Niall Hennessy and Patrick Hurney replacing Robert Ahearne in attack.

Barry Duggan, Brian Carrig and Diarmuid Daly will make their championship debuts for Michael McDermott’s Clare side.

Teams:

Clare: J Hayes; M Tubridy, B Duggan, B Carrig; M McMahon, G Kelly, D Callinan; G Quinlan, G Brennan; M O’Shea, P O’Dwyer, A Clohessy; D Tubridy, D Russell, D Daly.

Waterford: T Wall; M O’Gorman, T O’Gorman, K Connery; T Grey, S Briggs, E Walsh; M Aherne, T Prendergast; B Wall, C McGrath, W Hennessy; P Hurney, G Hurney, L O’Lionain.

Odds:

Waterford 1/2, Clare 2/1, Draw 15/2

JOE Prediction: Waterford to make the most of home advantage and prevail by three points or less.

Louth v Longford

Only Kilkenny and London finished lower than Longford in Division four this year, which gives you an idea of the form that Glenn Ryan’s side are in. The same side, however, gave Kerry a fright in the qualifiers last year and their situation can only get better after a dire league campaign.

Louth finished mid table in division three in a decent campaign for Peter Fitzpatrick’s men and the Wee County showed decent form both in the league and in the O’Byrne cup before that, where they were defeated by DCU in the final.

Eamon McCauley will make his Louth debut at corner back and Ronan Greene has recovered from a rib injury and is fit to line out in the other corner.

Longford’s Brian Kavanagh will face a late fitness test after only recently recovering from a broken foot but Paul Barden is fit to start after overcoming a muscle problem.

Teams:

Louth: N Gallagher; E McAuley, D Finnegan, R Greene; R Finnegan, M Fanning, J O’Brien; P Keenan, B White; A McDonnell, M Brennan, A Reid; C Judge, S Lennon, JP Rooney.

Longford: D Sheridan; D Brady, D Masterson, S Hannon; S Mulligan, E Williams, P Foy; A O’Connor, B Gilleran; P Dowd, F McGee, K Mulligan; D Reilly, B Kavanagh, P Barden.

Odds:

Louth 8/13, Longford 7/4, Draw 15/2

JOE Prediction: Longford have struggled all year and will continue to do on Sunday. Louth the victors by six points or more.