Predicting the 12 biggest club games across the country this weekend

Niall McIntyre

There are 12 senior county finals taking place this Sunday.

Top billing from a hurling perspective goes to the deciders in Limerick, Tipperary, Dublin, Galway and Kilkenny while, from a football stand-point, the Mayo and Tyrone finals are the real eye-catchers.

Three of those hurling county finals will be broadcast live on television across the weekend, with the Limerick hurling showpiece leading us off on TG4 on Saturday. Aaron Gillane, Diarmaid Byrnes and Cian Lynch will be hoping to swing that one for Patrickswell, though Na Piarsaigh are a formidable outfit that will be very hard to take down.

Next up is the Dublin hurling decider, where Na Fianna are hoping to banish the demons of losing the last two finals.

The Mobhi Road club have never won the title and if they’re do so, they’ll have to do it without their star player Donal Burke, who misses out through injury. AJ Murphy and Colin Currie have carried the load in Burke’s absence up front, however and will be hoping to take Ballyboden down on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the Tipperary hurling final is also televised, live on TG4 on Sunday, and this one is almost impossible to call. Thurles Sarsfields have a better punch off the bench though and while that may shade it for them, this clever Kiladangan team can never be discounted.

All eyes will be on Aidan O’Shea’s Breaffy from a Gaelic football side of things, as they take on Ballina in the hope of winning a first ever Mayo SFC crown. The Stephenites are favourites but Breaffy are in-form, having taken Castlebar Mitchels out in the semi-finals.

In Tyrone, an exciting Errigal Ciaran side should have too much for Trillick, with the Canavans hoping to inspire their club to back-to-back successes, something that hasn’t been done in the Red Hand county since Carrickmore won in 2004 and 2005.