A look ahead to all this weekend's action

ALLIANZ NFL FINALS

TODAY

Division Four

Waterford v Limerick,Croke Park, 5pm – This evening is historic for Waterford in that no football team from the county has appeared in a Croke Park final. That lack of experience of big days may tell against them against opponents who have a number of players seasoned in provincial finals – three of whom have already contested a league final at this venue seven years ago.

Limerick were understrength for the regulation league match they lost to Waterford at the Gaelic Grounds and for this evening have John Galvin and Ian Ryan back.

The Galvin-Jim O’Donovan centrefield pairing has been hugely influential in the past couple of must-win fixtures and Ryan is their best forward. Johnny McCarthy still hasn’t recovered from the injury picked up in the teams’ March meeting. Waterford can field returned hurler Gary Hurney, who has been in cracking form.

Limerick to shade a good tussle.

WATERFORD: T Wall; M O'Gorman, T O'Gorman, K Connery; T Grey, S Briggs, N Hennessy; T Prendergast, M Ahearne; B Wall, C McGrath, W Hennessy; G Hurney, R Ahearne, L Ó Lionáin

LIMERICK: B Scanlon; M O'Riordan, C Mullane, A Long; D Carroll, P Browne, P Relihan; J O'Donovan, J Galvin; J Mullane, C Joyce Power, S Buckley; G Collins, J Ryan, I Ryan.

Division Three

Antrim v Sligo,Croke Park 7pm – Great credit to both sides for moving in tandem through Division Three for a second successive promotion. In last year's Division Four final Sligo nicked the result with late, late points. This season Kevin Walsh has done well to manage the team through a poor start to clinch promotion.

Antrim are no strangers to Croke Park, having contested two Murphy Cup finals, in 2007 and 2008. Sligo have also been there on a few occasions during the last decade so neither should be unduly affected by the big stage. Liam Bradley’s Antrim team have been able to add personnel from the All-Ireland club champions St Gall’s and they have been bedding back into the team. CJ McGourty is named at centre forward but is likely to fetch up in the corner. Sligo have an experienced defence, a sound centrefield and a lively full forward line, as well as Eamonn O’Hara on the bench. Antrim won the previous game but are a better team now and can emerge from a competitive encounter.

ANTRIM: J Finucane; C Brady, A McClean, K O'Boyle; T Scullion, J Crozier, S Kelly; B Herron, M McCann; T O'Neill, CJ McGourty, J Loughrey; P Cunningham, M Magill, T McCann.

SLIGO: P Greene; C Harrison, N McGuire, R Donovan; K Cawley, M Quinn, J Davey; T Taylor, S Gilmartin; A Costello, M Breheny, F Quinn; C McGee, K Sweeney, D Kelly.

TOMORROW

Division Two

Down v Armagh,Croke Park, 2pm – Down have been arguably the team of the competition to date and share with Waterford the only unbeaten record. This will be an interesting indicator of where they stand just weeks before the championship gets underway.

James McCartan has been talking down his team’s displays in the campaign to date but there has been a convincing sense of purpose about Down, who have moved from Division Three to One in successive seasons.

McCartan said during the week he would try to start Ambrose Rogers, whose participation is threatened by injury.

There is further distraction with the speculation that Martin Clarke, who has had a very encouraging couple of months at centre forward, may be on his way back to the AFL.

When the teams met in Newry Down won easily but both teams have changed since then. Clarke had to leave injured relatively early in the match and Paul McComiskey was injured so the team is strengthened. But Armagh also have a fit-again Clarke, former All Star Ronan, back in harness.

Donegal ended up in third place behind tomorrow’s finalists and their manager JJ Doherty was struck by Down’s rate of progress. “They’re going very, very well and there’s a freshness about them that hasn’t been there for a while. They’re not depending on any one player and I thought they were very powerful around the middle and strong going forward from half back.”

Armagh however have an experienced core and field half a dozen survivors from the team that won the Division One title against Wexford five years ago. Steven McDonnell and Ronan Clarke have known some productive days in Croke Park but will need some sort of a platform at centrefield, which they didn’t get last month.

But former Down captain and manager Paddy O’Rourke will have Armagh well-briefed on the opposition and where things went wrong. Maybe Down got a jump on the rest of the division in the early stages of the season in terms of fitness and, if that’s a factor, tomorrow will be revealing. It’s more likely McCartan has achieved a discernible measure of progress in his first season and that his charges can confirm this.

DOWN: tba

ARMAGH: P Hearty; A Mallon, B Donaghy, B Shannon; P Duffy, K McKeever, F Moriarty; J Lavery, K Toner; C Vernon, A Kernan, G Swift; S McDonnell, R Clarke, B Mallon.