ULSTER sides Armagh and Donegal hope to keep their All-Ireland title hopes alive with victories in their quarter-final games this weekend.
Armagh are the first of the two in action on Saturday when they welcome Cork to the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, while Donegal face Dublin on Sunday afternoon in Ballybofey in the last of the four quarter-finals.
As the championship really begins to heat up now, the stakes rise and from here, there is no room for error as knock-out football begins.
Armagh are hoping to book their place in the semi-finals for the first time since 2020, having lost at this quarter-final stage for the last two years, while Donegal will aim to make it through to the last four for the second year in a row.
There are no easy or easier pairings; the remaining eight teams who are battling it out for the right to lift the Brendan Martin Cup in Croke Park next month are the best in the country.
It is perhaps the first championship in years that can be said is open to any one of the eight who are left, including the two Ulster teams, and both Armagh and Donegal will know that. They just have to get it right on the day and that begins this weekend.
Both have big battles on their hands and they do not need anyone tell them that. Both, though, have home advantage, having topped their respective groups, and if they can make that count and get the Orchard and Tír Chonaill faithful through the gates that could be the difference in winning or not.
Armagh know how important that home support is after their recent group win over Mayo. Donegal know too.
Cork might not be the same force in the game as they used to be, but they certainly have not gone away, and they won back their Munster title this year with aplomb.
They did suffer defeat to Galway in the All-Ireland group stages but bounced back with a win over Tipperary to secure their place in this round.
This will be the first time in four years that Armagh and Cork will have crossed paths, that game in 2019 in the group stages of the senior championship ending in a memorable one-point win for the Ulster side.
This will be the third year in-a-row that Donegal and Dublin have met at this quarter-final stage and it’s one apiece on the winning front.
Many might not remember what happened in the 2021 quarter-final – Dublin won by five points 2-12 to 2-7, but in last year’s game fewer will need reminding, not least Dublin, of how they were well beaten by six points, 3-7 to 1-7, by their Ulster opposition, after leading 0-4 to 0-1 at half-time.
Karen Guthrie got two of Donegal’s three second-half goals and she has been named among the substitutes for Sunday’s game
She came off the bench twice against Meath last day out, the second time with just minutes remaining, and put over the winning point.
Geraldine McLaughlin, who has come back into the panel after the Ulster final win over Armagh and featured for the first time this season against Waterford, has been listed to start her first game of the season and will no doubt give Dublin something else to think about.
The quarter-final schedule throws-in on Saturday at 1.30pm in an all-Connacht clash between Galway and reigning provincial champions Mayo in Salthill.
After the Armagh v Cork game, the action moves to Tralee for a repeat of year’s All-Ireland final, defending champions Meath putting their title on the line against Kerry.
The last of the semi-finalists will be known after Donegal and Dublin play out on Sunday afternoon.
All four quarter-final games are live on TG4.
The winners of the Armagh/Cork and Donegal/Dublin games will meet in the semi-finals, while the teams who emerge from the Kerry/Meath and Galway/Mayo ties will play each in the last four.
The semi-finals have been scheduled for Saturday, July 29 in a FBD Semple Stadium double-header.
QUARTER-FINALS
SATURDAY
Galway v Mayo (Pearse Stadium, 1.30pm)
Armagh v Cork (the BOX-IT Athletic Grounds, 3.30pm)
Kerry v Meath (Austin Stack Park, 7.30pm)
SUNDAY
Donegal v Dublin (Páirc Seán Mac Cumhaill, 2pm)
