Cork and Clare have been fined heavily and have had players banned after their fracas before their Munster championship game. The banned players weren’t named but it’s reported that Cork players are Donal Og Cusack, John Gardiner, Sean Og O’Hailpin and Diarmuid O’Sullivan and the Clare players are Colin Lynch, Alan Markham, Andrew Quinn and Barry Nugent. Cork are obviously going to hardest hit by any suspensions with their Munster semi-final against Waterford coming up in 2 weeks. So no doubt we’ll see this appealed all the way through to the DRA and even down other legal channels. It’s one of the most disappointing aspects of the GAA that players and county boards refuse to accept punishment for their crimes and instead deny everything and search for any legal loopholes.

No surprises in the weekend results as Cork and Offaly had comfortable wins.

In Thurles, where Cork beat Clare by 1-18 to 1-11, there was a crazy melee before the game when both teams ran out the tunnel at the same time and started tussling with each other. Once the game got going Cork’s scoring proved superior as they were always able to maintain a solid lead over the Clare men. Debutant Pa Cronin got their goal early in the second half and while Niall Gilligan got one back for Clare there was never any real doubt about the result. Cork move on to meet Waterford in 3 weeks time.

In Tullamore Offaly eased to a huge win over a mismatched Laois team by 1-26 to 0-10. The game started close enough but midway through the first half Offaly’s superior speed, stick-work and score taking kicked in and they started knocking over points for fun. Damien Murray was their top scorer with 1-12. Offaly now advance to play Kilkenny in the semi-final.

Up North Down advanced to the Ulster final when they knocked in 5 goals to see off Derry by 5-16 to 1-15 in the replayed semi-final.

Cork 1-18 Clare 1-11

Offaly 1-26 Laois 0-10

Down 5-16 Derry 1-15

With the Championship getting under way this weekend we can have a look at some of the odds. There’s not a lot of difference in the odds offered by various bookies and all have Kilkenny as the hot favourites.

For the All-Ireland we have
Paddy Power

• Kilkenny 5/4
• Cork 7/2
• Galway 5/1
• Waterford 5/1
• Tipperary 8/1
• Clare 25/1
• Limerick 25/1
• Wexford 40/1

Ladbrokes

• Kilkenny 5/4
• Cork 7/2
• Waterford 5/1
• Galway 6/1
• Tipperary 9/1
• Clare 18/1
• Limerick 25/1
• Wexford 66/1

Cork v Clare
The first big clash of the hurling championship brings together two teams who have had far from ideal seasons so far. The Clare squad problems have been well publicised and it will be interesting to see if Tony Considine can raise another typical fighting banner performance from the team. Cork have had a slight undercurrent of dissent in the transition to new manager Gerald MacCarthy but they seem to be in much better shape than their opponents. With Clare missing the old defensive spine of Davy Fitz, Brian Lohan and Seanie McMahon it’s hard to see them being able to hold Cork’s fast moving attack. Cork should win this one by 6 points.

Laois v Offaly
The Leinster championship opens with two teams clashing for the chance to get hammered by Kilkenny in the semi final. Offaly had a pretty decent league campaign but then suffered the disappointment of being relegated to division 2, while Laois won the division 2 crown but were well beaten by Limerick in the promotion playoff. Offaly have been much the better team in recent clashes between the teams and it’s hard to see that changing on Sunday. Despite the fact that they are carrying a few injury concerns that has delayed the naming of their team they should still be too strong for a very youthful Laois team. Offaly to win by 10 points.

Down v Derry (replay)
Down should be able to reach the Ulster final at the second time of asking. With a game under their belts they won’t be as rusty as last week. Down by 4.

Laois have named a very inexperienced team for their Leinster Championship clash with Offaly on Sunday. Following on from their policy of playing under 25s during the league campaign and sticking with the lineup that lost to Limerick in the recent division 1 playoff manager Damien Fox named 7 debutants for the quarter final clash.

LAOIS: P Mullaney; C Healy, D Rooney, K Fitzpatrick; M McEvoy, M Whelan, C Dunne; J Fitzpatrick, S Dollard; W Hyland, J Young, Joe Phelan; J Brophy, T Fitzgerald, Jason Phelan.

Cork and Clare have both announced their teams for Sunday’s first big hurling clash of the summer. Cork are starting 12 players from last year’s all-ireland final with Cian O’Connor at left corner back, Patrick Cronin at left half forward and Keiran Murphy at right half forward. In a surprise move they have named Timmy McCarthy at full forward.

Clare have 3 newcomers on their team, Philip Brennan in goals, Brendan Bulger at centre back and Kevin Dileen at midfield. Their number 3 jersey is now being filled by Brian O’Connell following the retirement of the legendary Brian Lohan. In a blow to the banner man Bernard Gaffney, who starred up front during the league, has failed a fitness test.

CLARE: P Brennan; G O’Grady, B O’Connell, F Lohan; A Markham, B Bugler, G Quinn; C Lynch, K Dilleen; J Clancy, D McMahon, N Gilligan; A Quinn, F Lynch, B Nugent.

CORK: D Og Cusack; B Murphy, D O’Sullivan, C O’Connor; J Gardiner, R Curran, S Og O hAilpin; T Kenny, J O’Connor; K Murphy (Erin’s Own, captain), N McCarthy, P Cronin; B O’Connor, T McCarthy, J Deane.

Sunday May 27th
Munster Senior Hurling Championship
Clare v Cork (Thurles, 2pm, Live on RTE)

Leinster Senior Hurling Championship
Offaly v Laois (Tullamore, 3.30pm)

Saturday May 26th
Ulster Senior Hurling Championship Semi-Final Replay
Down v Derry (Casement Park, 3.30pm)

The draws for the Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard cups have been made.

In the Christy Ring we have two groups of five with each team playing each other once and the top two making the semi-finals. The first round of games are due to start on Saturday June 16th.

Group 2A: Down, Kerry, Mayo, Meath, Westmeath
Group 2B: Carlow, Derry, Kildare, London, Wicklow

In the Nicky Rackard we have four groups of three with each team playing one home and one away game and the top two making the quarter-finals. The first round of games are due to start on Saturday June 23rd.

Group 3A: Armagh, Sligo, Tyrone
Group 3B: Donegal, Leitrim, Longford
Group 3C: Fermanagh, Monaghan, Roscommon
Group 3D: Cavan, Louth, Warwickshire

The Division one status for 2008 was sorted over the weekend when Offaly’s appeal against the 9 team league was turned down and Limerick beat Laois in the play off, all meaning that Limerick stay in division 1, Offaly are relegated to division 2 and Laois stay put in division 2.

Offaly’s appeal was looking for division 1 to be 10 teams rather than the 9 teams it’s set for, but despite gaining some support at central council and actually winning the vote 23-17, they didn’t get the two thirds majority they needed. It was another typical piece of GAA nonsense, Offaly knew months ago the situation, why didn’t they lodge their objection back then? Ludicrous claims about the death of Offaly hurling by their manager are nonsense and uncalled for. Their needs to be a good split in the leagues to prevent a clear two tier and allow some realistic promotion and relegation , if Offaly were that concerned they shouldn’t have leaked 6 goals to Limerick in the first play off.

Limerick as expected saw off Laois on a scoreline of 3-15 to 1-13 but the Laois men put up a good display and but for some wayward shooting and a total over-reliance on James Young for their scores they might have been even closer. Andrew O’Shaughnessy was Limerick’s main score-getter with 2-8.

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