Championships reaches final round of group stage
Mark Buggy will look to continue his excellent Championship when Palatine Éire Óg on Thursday evening Photo: Pat Ahern
Fenagh will have been bruised by their battering from Éire Óg. They have little or no time to recover. Yet in third place from the bottom they are still in with a good chance of making the knock-out stages. They have to perform here. A win is unlikely against a gung-ho Rathvilly side who are almost everyone’s favourites to win outright in 2026.
Rathvilly
Bagenalstown Gaels will be flying after their late win against Mount Leinster Rangers. It could be a good time to play what looks like a jaded Old Leighlin side. Time will tell that however. Jamie Clarke, Paddy McDonnell and Cian Doyle have all put their hands up this year and want to be counted on the front line for the Gaels. For Old Leighlin, Aaron Amond, Ian Atkinson, David Bambrick and Mikey Bambrick have to find their mojo which has been missing.
Bagenalstown Gaels
How hurt are Mount Leinster Rangers after their late defeat to Bagenalstown Gaels? The big question is can they transfer that into a performance and after what has been witnessed so far this year the feeling is that this will not happen. Grange are getting the very best out of themselves. They were good in patches against Palatine and will need to do a bit more here over sixty minutes if they are to win.
Mount Leinster Rangers.
This should be the game of the weekend but the feeling is that this will not happen. With a 100% record from four games, Éire Óg are mooching along quite nicely. Palatine are in a similar mode dropping a point to Rathvilly. Both teams are doing what they have to do before the big questions are asked of them.
Éire Óg
Even though Éire Óg beat Tinryland last year in the senior relegation play-off there is no real talk of that here. If Tinryland win here and Ballon lose to Kildavin-Clonegal which is unlikely then they could go to the semi-finals depending on further results. It will need some strange combination of results to see Éire Óg fall into the relegation play-offs.
Tinryland
Both these sides would never have envisaged themselves being in the position where they are now. Yet between them they have only won one game when Clonmore beat Éire Óg in the fourth round. Dylan Doyle and Oisin Doyle led the way scoring 1-10 between them. They will need more of this if they are to progress. Andy Mulleney and Bobby Daly are the Ballinabranna go-to players.
Clonmore
In the words of Pat Spillane when he was previewing some of the games in the 2026 All-Ireland championship this has the potential to be a “blockbuster”. The Fighting Cocks were proud junior championship winners last season but they want to go higher. St Patricks are on top of the table with four wins from four and are one point ahead of The Cocks.
This could be a battle of the scorers. Jack Kennedy and Brian Byrne for St Patricks against Aaron Dowling, Cillian Fagan and Emmet Moran for the Cocks. This is going to be tight.
Fighting Cocks
It is hard to see anything but a Ballon win here. They came back to draw level with the Cocks in a previous game with Brian Maher scoring 1-4. Local pride will mean a lot to Kildavin-Clonegal and they need the win. Niall Hickey, Liam Roberts and Joe Roberts will need to produce yet again.
Ballon
It doesn’t get more tastier than this. Two Town sides who know each other well. The Blues have a 100% record from four games while Asca slipped up against Naomh Eoin at home in round one. Since then the Sky Blues have put up some big scores with John Phiri and James Ingram impressing. For O’Hanrahans, Cian Dowling scored 3-1 in his last outing against Palatine.
O’Hanrahans
Leighlinbridge picked off a nice scalp when beating Kilbride by seven points in the previous round. The full forward trio of Fiach O’Toole, Aidan Lillis and Charlie Nolan accounted for 3-5 of 3-13 that day.
The Reds shipped 7-10 against Naomh Eoin and are not in a good place.
Leighlinbridge
Naomh Eoin have two wins and Kilbride one out of four played. They are both in there with chances of making the quarter-finals and from there they will surely improve. Kilbride may prevail here. Not that they are that much better but it is a must win game for them.
Kilbride
Palatine and Rathvilly played their fifth round game last night (Monday)
