THE PICTURE FOR the knockout stages in the All-Ireland camogie championship will become clearer this weekend with the final round-robin games taking place on Saturday.
Cork have already booked a place at the semi-final stage as they are going to top Group 2 but everything is else up for grabs.
The winner of Group 1 will also advance to the semi-finals with second and third in each group going forward to the quarter-finals.
Here’s the state of play.
Group 1
Clare entertain Galway in Ennis on Saturday while Kilkenny host Dublin in Kilmanagh. Bottom of the table Waterford are out of the reckoning after losing all their four games but every other team has something to play for.
If two teams are tied, scoring difference will come into play first before then head to head records are used.
Kilkenny are in pole position at the top of the table and if they beat Dublin, they will book a semi-final spot. If they lose they will be assured of a quarter-final place if Clare lose to Galway, and even if Clare are victorious they have ground to make up on scoring difference.
If Galway win or draw, then Clare will not progress and it will be some combination of Kilkenny, Galway and Dublin in the knockout stages.
If Kilkenny and Clare both win, Galway will qualify for the quarter-finals in third at the expense of Dublin due to a vastly superior scoring difference. If Dublin and Clare win, then Dublin will top the group and it will be Galway who will miss out with Dublin finishing first, Kilkenny likely to be second – on scoring difference – and Clare in third.
Group 2
In Group 2, there is a battle for the two quarter-final places with Cork guaranteed to finish top of the table after last Saturday’s win over Offaly.
The situation is more complicated then with Wexford, Offaly, Limerick and Tipperary all in with a chance of claiming a quarter-final spot. Limerick welcome Wexford to Bruff while Tipperary will travel to Birr to take on Offaly.
If Wexford draw or win, they will definitely progress, while a Wexford win coupled with an Offaly win will see both those sides qualify for the quarter-finals. Wins for Limerick and Offaly would leave that pair along with Wexford all tied on six points, with all three currently closely tied on scoring difference.
Tipperary have to win to put themselves in the reckoning but they would also need Wexford to do them a favour in that instance and defeat Limerick.
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