All-Ireland SFC preliminary QFs: All You Need To Know

SATURDAY 22 JUNE

All-Ireland SFC preliminary QFs
Galway v Monaghan, Pearse Stadium, 4pm
Tyrone v Roscommon, Healy Park, 5pm
Mayo v Derry, Hastings Insurance MacHale Park, 6.30pm

SUNDAY 23 JUNE

All-Ireland preliminary QF
Louth v Cork, Inniskeen, 3pm

ONLINE
Live blogs on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app. Highlights also available across the weekend.

TV
GAAGO will broadcast all four preliminary quarter-finals live across Saturday and Sunday. Highlights of all the weekend’s action on The Sunday Game, RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player, from 10.15pm.

RADIO
Live commentary and updates throughout the weekend on RTÉ Radio 1 on Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta’s Spórt an tSathairn and Spórt an Lae.

WEATHER
Saturday: Sunny spells at first tomorrow, Saturday, turning cloudier through the morning with some patchy light rain or drizzle developing. Highest temperatures 16 to 18 degrees in light to moderate southwesterly winds.

Sunday: Sunny spells on Sunday and staying mainly dry. Highest temperatures 18 to 23 degrees in mostly light southwesterly or variable breezes. For more, visit met.ie.

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Fragile Derry head onto Castlebar

Derry have arrived, coughing and wheezing, at the knockout stage.

For the traditionalists, it’s an indictment of the current championship format that they’re still alive but there’s no altering that for this year at least – though Jarlath Burns has heavily suggested that the era of teams surviving three losses in championship will be short-lived.

Their four-point win over Westmeath last weekend stemmed the flow of defeats and preserved their interest in the championship, though it hardly constituted a massive boo-ya to their critics.

Westmeath had narrowed the gap to a point entering the final 10 minutes, teeing up a nervy finale. Derry supporters, presumably shellshocked by the course their summer has taken, were no doubt fearing the worst. But then Emmett Bradley rifled the ball to the roof of the net and they could breathe again.

The media chorus remained distinctly unimpressed, Paul Flynn insisting that they’d resembled a Division 3 team. They were still wholly devoid of their spring swagger, which was evidently knocked out of the them in the shocking Donegal ambush in Celtic Park.

Shane McGuigan, who during the league was being talked of as a forward on a similar plane to Clifford and O’Callaghan, cut a sheepish and demoralised figure, blazing wides and shanking one shot into the keeper’s arms.

The last time they pitched up in Castlebar, they were cock-of-the-walk and bona fide All-Ireland contenders, the new thing that everyone was still raving about.

They lashed home three goals and could have had double that. Every time a (nominal) Derry defender coursed forward, it felt like a goal was on, the man in possession invariably being flanked by a support runner on his shoulder. It was regarded as testament to Mayo’s stubborn resilience that the gap was only five in the end.

The consensus verdict as they arrive in MacHale Park again is that they’ve incurred too much psychological damage in the meantime, and are possibly carrying too much fatigue to muster a similar showing.

They face Mayo side who are somewhere between buoyed and frustrated.

Kevin McStay’s team were one final play away from registering a sweet victory over the Dubs and booking their first-class ticket to the quarter-finals.

Alas, Ciaran Kilkenny pulled Cluxton’s kickout out of the sky and from the moment he fed Jack McCaffrey with a swift handpass, the equalising score felt inevitable.

Still, the performance has injected some buzz back into the Mayo scene. The feeling prior to last weekend was that they were treading water somewhat, playing overly pedestrian football and were increasingly no longer a threat to the biggest teams.

Aidan O’Shea, now in his 16th campaign and often viciously maligned (notably after the ’21 All-Ireland), is enjoying one of his strongest campaigns and was slathered in praise after his display in the Hyde.

Tommy Conroy, occasionally critiqued for not scoring enough, landed 0-03 from play, while the ever-reliable Ryan O’Donoghue struck 0-07 overall.

Teams named:

Mayo: Colm Reape; Jack Coyne, David McBrien, Donnacha McHugh; Rory Brickenden, Sam Callinan, Eoghan McLaughlin; Stephen Coen, Matty Ruane; Tommy Conroy, Darren McHale, Jordan Flynn; Aidan O’Shea, Jack Carney, Ryan O’Donoghue.

Derry: Odhrán Lynch; Conor McCluskey, Chrissy McKaigue, Diarmuid Baker; Ciaran McFaul, Eoin McEvoy, Donnacha Gilmore; Conor Glass, Brendan Rogers; Ethan Doherty, Emmett Bradley, Paul Cassidy; Eunan Mulholland, Shane McGuigan, Lachlann Murray.

Recent championship history:

Only their third ever meeting in the championship, the pair having been kept apart by the provincial boundary and Derry’s relatively infrequent forays into Croke Park in the 20th century.

The last meeting was an unexpected humdinger in 2017, when Mayo were embarking on one of their torturous runs through the qualifiers to the All-Ireland final. Derry were deemed also rans at the time but forced extra-time, Mark Lynch slapping home a goal in the final minute. Mayo, sluggish in normal time, switched on the afterburners in the extra-time period and ran out 10-point winners.

The previous encounter in 2007 was a one-sided qualifier win for Derry in Celtic Park, as John O’Mahony’s long-awaited second coming as Mayo manager proved a letdown.

Last stand for Monaghan generation?

Monaghan head west off the back of a miserable 2024 but still with a puncher’s chance of getting to the last eight.

Vinny Corey’s side ended a 10-game streak without a win against Meath in Cavan last week, even if they suffered a violent late wobble.

Momentarily, it looked likely they would overhaul the 20-point score differential between themselves and Louth, with Ger Brennan’s side shipping a heavy beating against Kerry in the simultaneous game.

Barry McBennett’s goal put Monaghan nine clear in the final quarter but they proceeded to concede seven points on the trot, definitively scuppering their chances of a home tie and almost costing them their place in the knockouts altogether. Meanwhile, late on in Portlaoise, we were treated to the unusual spectacle of Louth nursing possession while trailing by 14 points as they sought to nail down second place.

Kieran Duffy and Karl O’Connell, missing last time out, are in a race to be fit for Salthill, though Ryan O’Toole is reportedly ruled out.

In the league, a more or less B-list Galway forward line hit three goals as the westerners ran out easy winners in Clones. However, the Monaghan players are at pains to write off most of the year so far.

Conor McManus, who’s already said this is likely to be his last year, branded much of what’s happened til now as ‘shadow-boxing’ and stressed that they were now entering championship time.

Full-back Killian Lavelle has likewise insisted that June and July is when championship happens and all else is only preamble.

In 2023, Monaghan won just six of 15 competitive games and reached an All-Ireland semi-finals. So far, in 2024, they’ve won just two of 11 – can they squeeze into the latter stages again?

For Galway, the sickener is that they have to partake in this fixture at all. They looked roughly five-six points superior to Armagh through most of last weekend’s game in Markievicz Park, even with Damien Comer still stuck on the treatment table and Rob Finnerty’s leg heavily strapped.

Enormously efficient when shooting into the breeze, they dawdled when in control in the third quarter, failing to put the game away. Connor Gleeson, hero of the Connacht final, came a cropper with a short kick-out when the gap stood at four points. Conor Turbitt had his back to the keeper but flipped around in time to scoop up the ball and feed Tiernan Kelly for the vital goal.

Reports on Comer’s injury prognosis had looked unremittingly bleak but the Annaghdown full-forward is included in the panel this weekend. He rode to the rescue on his introduction against Sligo in the Connacht semi-final but they might prefer to hold him in reserve this Saturday.

Teams named:

Galway: Connor Gleeson; Johnny McGrath, Sean Fitzgerald, Jack Glynn; Dylan McHugh, Liam Silke, Sean Mulkerrin; Paul Conroy, Sean Kelly; Matthew Tierney, John Maher, Céin Darcy; Rob Finnerty, Shane Walsh, Cillian McDaid.

Recent championship history:

Monaghan can draw sustenance from their last visit to Salthill when they ran riot to win by eight points in the final round of the inaugural (and penultimate) Super 8s in 2018.

The result is slightly caveated by the odd context to the fixture. Galway, who’d won 11 of their 13 games that year until then, were already guaranteed to reach the semis and there was some background debate in the county about whether it would be better to meet Dublin in the last-four. This talk backfired in any case.

The last championship encounter before that was in the 1938 All-Ireland semi-final, when Galway won en route to their third Sam Maguire victory but that probably couldn’t count as recent.

Free scoring and free conceding sides meet in Omagh

Like Derry and Monaghan, Roscommon have arrived at this stage despite an ingrained losing habit in 2024.

Relegated in the spring, Davy Burke’s side have won just two matches so far this year, though crucially one of those came against Cavan in the winner-takes-all shootout in Longford last Saturday.

Shootout being the operative word, given the Rossies racked up a whopping 3-20 – a score which might even constitute a respectable tally in the Munster hurling championship.

Ciaran Murtagh’s opting out at the start of the year was a major blow to Burke and co but they’re not exactly short of forward power, with Diarmuid Murtagh, Conor Cox and Daire Cregg all scoring freely.

More encouraging again, Tyrone have shown frailties at the back, most glaringly in the final league game against Dublin (albeit this game was of little consequence to them). Their 2024 campaign has been of a piece with their form since the smash and grab All-Ireland victory three years ago.

The seven-point loss to Donegal in the first group game was especially sobering, not least considering the widespread narrative that Jim McGuinness’ side might be in the midst of a post-Ulster hangover.

They were shrewd and efficient in the second half against a dangerous Cork side, capitalising on Chris Óg Jones’ black card, to establish a winning lead. Ben Cullen’s 48th minute goal was the decisive score, slipping it past Christopher Kelly at the near post.

Darragh Canavan had a terrific ding-dong with Daniel O’Mahony, though still mustered 0-04 from play. Niall Morgan, meanwhile, is one of the most assured fly-keepers in the game.

They will have to cope without Conn Kilpatrick, who was levied with a two-game ban following his straight red last weekend.

Teams named:

Tyrone: Niall Morgan; Michael McKernan, Padraig Hampsey, Niall Devlin; Ben Cullen, Peter Harte, Michael O’Neill; Brian Kennedy, Mattie Donnelly; Ciaran Daly, Ruairí Canavan, Kieran McGeary; Darren McCurry, Darragh Canavan, Seanie O’Donnell.

Roscommon: Conor Carroll; Niall Higgins, Brian Stack, Robbie Dolan; David Murray, Ruaidhrí Fallon, Eoin McCormack; Enda Smith, Ultan Harney; Dylan Ruane, Diarmuid Murtagh, Shane Cunnane; Daire Cregg, Conor Cox, Donie Smith.

Recent championship history:

Nowt for 120+ years and then five meetings in one decade. Three in three years in fact.

Tyrone have won all five championship meetings between the pair, three of them by double digit margins – 2011, 2012 and 2018.

They clung on to win 0-12 to 1-07 in the Hyde in 2013 and only won by four in the same venue in 2019. The latter two encounters (’18 and ’19) were Super 8s games.

Louth v Cork – Round 5

Louth were especially anxious to protect their ‘home’ advantage in the endgame against Kerry and appeared happy to settle for the 14-point defeat, safe in the knowledge that Meath’s late burst in Cavan had guaranteed them runner-up spot.

Based on their Round 1 fixture there in the group, Inniskeen, in Monaghan, is as fine a fortress as any other. Craig Lennon fired home two first half goals as they ended decades of woe and misfortune (occasionally scandalous misfortune) against their Leinster neighbours.

The draw held out the tantalising prospect of a grudge match with Derry – an outcome deeply desired by the nation’s scribes – but instead it’s yet another game against Cork, with whom they’ve already tussled four times in the past two years.

Louth won both league encounters in 2023 and 2024 but Cork won both championship games in 2022 and ’23.

A late trio of points saw them edge the Division 2 encounter in Ardee in early February but that was prior to Cork’s subsequent revival.

John Cleary’s side have built on their positive 2023 season and following on from their win over Mayo last year, took another big scalp in the group phase, as Jim McGuinness’ Ulster champions crashed to earth in Páirc Uí Rinn.

They’ve been boosted this weekend by the return of Brian Hurley to the matchday panel, even if he isn’t – at the moment – deemed fit to start.

Teams named:

Cork: Christopher Kelly; Kevin Flahive, Daniel O’Mahony, Maurice Shanley; Rory Maguire, Tommy Walsh, Matty Taylor; Ian Maguire, Colm O’Callaghan; Paul Walsh, Sean Powter, Brian O’Driscoll; Mark Cronin, Chris Óg Jones, Steven Sherlock.

Recent championship history:

As noted, Cork have edged out Louth in the past two summers, pipping them by two in a free-scoring group phase encounter in Navan in 2023.

They previously met in the qualifiers in 2007, Cork again pipping them by two. You have to travel back to the Pathé News era for a Louth victory. It was Cork they beat to win their last All-Ireland title in 1957.