WITH little or no fanfare, the Munster senior football championship throws in this weekend with two quarter-final games on Sunday.

Cork host Limerick in Páirc Uí Chaoimh while at the same time (2pm), Waterford welcome Tipperary to Fraher Field in Dungarvan. The winners of these ties will face off in a Munster semi-final with Clare and Kerry on the other side of the draw.

We will look at Cork v Limerick, however it does no harm to cast a quick eye over the state of football in Munster as a whole after the league campaigns.

All-Ireland champions Kerry largely cruised through the group stage in Division 1. While the heavy defeat to Donegal in the final has raised a few eyebrows, they will be raging favourites for another provincial crown – they are still the team to beat in the race for Sam Maguire. Here at home, Cork had a successful campaign culminating in promotion from Division 2, but without silverware. Elsewhere, the picture for football in the province is less than stellar.

Waterford brought up the rear across all four divisions without a single point across their seven games in Division 4 and an average margin of defeat of just under nine points per game. 2020 Munster champions Tipperary had a respectable campaign in the same division, finishing on eight points with three wins, two draws and two defeats. Nominally, they finished fifth in Division 4 but were just a point away from finishing in the top two and promotion back to Division 3. Nonetheless, they will play their football in the lower division next year, where they will be joined by Cork’s opponents on Sunday.

Limerick finished one point behind their neighbours on the other side of the Shannon, with Clare’s nine-point victory in Rathkeale in February being the crucial result in the battle to stay up. Overall, Munster will have two Division 1 teams in 2027, with Clare in Division 3 and the rest all languishing on the lowest rung of the ladder. It’s not great reading for Munster football.

Now, to Sunday: Cork’s first hurdle in the race to reach the Munster final. The two teams make for familiar foes at this stage, as this will be the third year in a row that they have squared off in a Munster quarter-final. Cork have been comfortable winners in the previous two contests and will be expected to do the needful again on the back of both teams’ contrasting league fortunes. Cork won both games in 2024 and ’25 by 11 points and few will be expecting much different this Sunday, however our job here is to look a bit closer than the average Joe so we will delve a little deeper into Limerick’s league results.

Limerick started their campaign quite well with a draw away to Laois, before a single point reversal at home against eventual champions Down. Limerick, who played all their home games in Rathkeale, followed that up with a win over Wexford, who would eventually be promoted alongside Down. Three points from three games was a reasonable start, but it was then that the wheels started to fall off for Jimmy Lee’s charges. A three-point defeat in Sligo may not have been a disaster in itself, however it was followed by the crucial loss to Clare in Rathkeale.

Worse was to come, though, with a 14-point hammering away to Westmeath condemning Limerick to the drop before some pride was salvaged with a one-point home win over Fermanagh. The results show Limerick were competitive in most of their games, including against both promoted teams, with two particularly poor outings against Clare and Westmeath sealing their fate. People more in the know about Limerick football tell me their squad is depleted this year, and former captain Iain Corbett has stepped away from inter-county football.

A quick look at the teams that started against Wexford in the third round and Westmeath in the sixth shows at least five players that started the home win that didn’t feature in the beating against the midlanders. Five or six players unavailable for a county like Limerick is too much to absorb and may have been a factor in their decline also.

A stronger Limerick side do have some more positive recent memories from playing in Cork, as they beat a very experimental home team in the McGrath Cup in January in Páirc Uí Rinn. Their main man James Naughton claimed 2-5 in that game and will again be expected to carry the fight to Cork. Danny Neville and the Childs brothers, Robbie and Tommy, also have significant experience in the green jersey. Limerick will need those four, and Naughton in particular, to bring their absolute best to Leeside to give themselves any opportunity of causing a major upset.

For Cork though, the focus will be on themselves. Cork have a very settled team at this stage, arguably too settled given the lack of variety in the players who were given significant minutes in the league. But there is comfort in knowing the bulk of the starting 15. The main question point after the league final surrounds the goalkeeper position. Still, I expect Patrick Doyle will be retained for his first championship start. We know very well what Micheál Aodh Martin can do between the posts at this point, but it makes sense to give Doyle the nod knowing we have a dependable back-up.

In front of him, Daniel O’Mahony, Maurice Shanley, Brian O’Driscoll, Tommy Walsh and Luke Fahy will claim five starting berths. That leaves Sean Brady and Sean Meehan to fight for the corner-back spot, which looks like a 50-50 call. Meehan might have done enough at the end of the league to hold onto the jersey. Rory Maguire and Matty Taylor (if fit) would be next off the rank.

Midfield is entirely predictable with Colm O’Callaghan and Ian Maguire at eight and nine. The league final highlighted the lack of depth at midfield for Cork, with only Sean Walsh as a recognised midfielder getting significant minutes during the league.

Up front, again the picture is very settled, with the only question surrounding the fitness of Dara Sheedy. John Cleary told this paper this week that the Bantry man is available for the U20s, who start their Munster series against Clare this Thursday evening. So, let’s wait and see how Sheedy comes through that.

Brian Hurley made an impact against both Tyrone and Meath, but I expect he will be kept in reserve if Sheedy is available.

Paul Walsh and Sean McDonnell will take spots in the half-forward line and will have to provide support to the two over-worked midfielders. To be fair, Walsh has done this role quite well this year, albeit he’ll need to start claiming more restarts, while McDonnell is more of a scoring threat but again needs to be an option for kick-outs.

Sheedy will roam deep to get on the ball if he’s selected, with Mark Cronin joining the in-form duo of Chris Óg Jones and Steven Sherlock in the inside line. Cronin had a very decent league, however Jones and Sherlock are the scorers-in-chief and their cards will be well marked after the league final. Both players can expect close attention on Sunday and onwards into the championship, however stopping them is easier said than done if they get the right supply of possession. As during the league, Ruairí Deane and Hurley will be the primary back-up options.

Realistically, we can’t talk this one up as anything more than what should be a routine home win. Cork have ambitions to start competing once more with the best teams in the country in the later stages of the race for Sam Maguire, while Limerick will be eyeing a run in the Tailteann Cup.

These teams are on different trajectories and the gulf in quality should be exposed on Sunday. If we are here next week reflecting on anything other than a relatively straight-forward Cork win, it will be a significant surprise. Cork to win by eight or more and we can move on to bigger games ahead. Up the Rebels!