Four-quarter finals in the Galway Football Intermediate Championship take place this weekend with all eight teams vying to reach senior status.
With so little between them, there is a genuine case to be made that all teams now left in the championship have a decent chance of going all the way. It is hard to recall such an open championship from recent memory. As a result a few big contenders will drop out of the championship and will have to wait for the 2024 season to have another crack.
There are two double headers taking place on Saturday in both Pearse Stadium and Tuam Stadium.
The first of the quarter finals takes place in Pearse Stadium at 2.15pm when Oileáin Árann and Caltra meet.
Caltra made light work of St Gabriel’s in their preliminary quarter-final a fortnight ago with a comfortable 10-point victory in Ballinasloe. Niall Coyne’s side may be coming in slightly under the radar as they were extremely unfortunate not to have topped their group which was decided by score difference.
Similar to the other teams who qualified directly for the quarter-final, it will be interesting to see if the four-week break for Oileáin Árann has been beneficial or not. Following so many narrow defeats in recent years, the islanders will be desperate to get over the line on Saturday afternoon.
That opening game in Salthill will be followed by the clash of Monivea-Abbey and Mícheál Breathnach at 4pm. Monivea-Abbey will be slight favourites for this contest, given they topped their difficult group, but they will not be underestimating the challenge posed from Mícheál Breathnach.
The Connemara side overcame Williamstown by a goal in the preliminary quarter final, but in truth should have won by a good bit more. The nature of their performance will give them great confidence ahead of this last eight showdown.
Tuam Stadium hosts a possible tie of the round on paper at 2.30pm when last year’s beaten finalists Kilconly do battle with an ever improving St Brendan’s.
St Brendan’s dished out an awful hammering to Clifden in their preliminary quarter-final a fortnight ago. It was an impressive attacking display with Rory Cunningham and James Mulrooney at the forefront of their best play. However, it is most likely that defensively Kilconly will ask questions of St Brendan’s, given the attacking prowess of Paul Mannion and David Prendergast. The Kilconly duo are a bundle of pace and energy and, if St Brendan’s are to emerge victorious, they will need to keep those two quiet.
The last quarter final is at 4.15pm in Tuam as Glenamaddy play Cortoon Shamrocks. Glenamaddy will be determined to banish the ghost of the last time they played a knockout game in Tuam Stadium where they were defeated in extra time by Kilconly in 2022.
They are firm favourites to overcome a Cortoon Shamrocks team which recorded a five-point win over Oranmore-Maree in the preliminary quarter-final. That victory saw an interesting debut for former inter-county hurler Jonathan Glynn for Cortoon. Whether he features more heavily or not this coming Saturday afternoon remains to be seen.
In the intermediate relegation group, there are two fixtures down for this Saturday. An Cheathrú Rua play Killererin in the Prairie at 1pm with both teams having lost their opening games. Meanwhile, Corofin and Kilkerrin-Clonberne face each other in Milltown at 1.30pm with two points already on the board for both.
