Stakes high as Galway and Cork face-off

CORK will meet Galway in the third round of the All-Ireland SHC qualifiers next weekend after yesterday’s draw and Rebel selector Jerry Ryan made no attempt to disguise the stakes on offer for both sides.

Both Denis Walsh and John McIntyre are in the last year of their respective stints with the two counties, meaning one management team may be taking charge of their players for the last time in five days’ time.

Former Cork manager Donal O’Grady saw his Limerick side paired with Dinny Cahill’s Antrim in the draw, which was made on TV3 yesterday evening, meaning the Cork-Galway clash will garner most of the attention in the week to come.

Cork have hammered Laois and struggled past Offaly in the qualifiers since losing to Tipperary in Munster while Galway have beaten Westmeath and lost to Dublin in Leinster before resurrecting their season against Clare last Saturday.

How much those games will mean to the respective sides remains a moot point, according to Ryan.

“That’s a hard question to answer. When we went out to play Laois everyone was expecting us to win and it didn’t matter whether we won by two points or ten points and some people thought the same against Offaly.

“That was always going to be a different kettle of fish. I saw Offaly against Dublin and they were very unlucky to lose that game. A lot of people had underestimated Offaly, mostly people in the media.

“I was delighted just to get the win against Offaly. If you’d offered me any sort of a win before it I would have taken it but we will be without Pa Cronin now the next day and he will be a big loss.

“Will those two games be any good for us? We’ll have to see after the next day but Galway are more or less the same as us after their few games the last few weeks. It is a big game for both teams.”

The sides are familiar foes in the back door and this will be their third meeting in the qualifiers in four years with Cork winning by two points in 2008 and Galway claiming revenge the following summer with seven points to spare.

Both games were played in Thurles and, though the CCCC are to meet today to decide on venues for the two fixtures, it appears likely that Semple Stadium will play host to the sides once again this Saturday.

“We played them in the league final last year as well so both of us are very familiar with each other,” said Ryan. “This is where we are now and we have to get on with it. It was going to be tough whichever of them came out.

“I didn’t see their match [against Clare] yet but Galway have got great strength in depth and they were always going to come back with something after a poor performance against Dublin in Tullamore that night. There was always going to be a big kickback.”

Limerick and Antrim last met in Division Two of the league back in April when the Munster side recorded a comfortable 12-point win and O’Grady’s side will be heavily fancied to secure a place in the All-Ireland quarter-finals next weekend.