Ciarán Murphy: Jeopardy enters the frame shouting and roaring this weekend. And we love it

The change of format in this year’s All-Ireland football championship was designed to remove the chance of dead rubbers in the group phase of the All-Ireland series. It’s resulted in one game less for every team, and instead of three successive weekends where we have eight games happening across the Sam Maguire, there will be only one such madcap weekend – this one upcoming.

We will say goodbye to our first four teams from the top tier, to go with the nine whose season has already finished in the Tailteann Cup. And for the other 12 teams, four will proceed to the quarter-finals, with another four using up their last life.

The four games in Round 2A this weekend represent the last games of the summer where defeat is not fatal. From there on out, in hurling and Gaelic football, it’s straight knock-out, a situation which we reflexively prefer.

I was surprised at the extent to which people were triangulating the emotions of each of the provincial hurling finalists. Whatever about the merits of Cork and Limerick facing off for a fourth time this year, with both of them going to survive in the championship regardless of the result on Sunday, there was absolutely no shadowboxing about the Leinster final. There couldn’t be.

Both teams would live to fight another day, but for Galway and Dublin, the need to win on Saturday evening was intense and deeply felt. They both desperately needed a provincial title, not just to give their futures a shot in the arm, but to frank the work of the past 12 months. For Dublin, it would have been seen as a logical progression from last year’s win over Limerick in the All-Ireland quarter-final. It would answer that most nagging of questions in the darkest recesses of any sportsperson’s mind – “are we for real?”

The win over Kilkenny in Parnell Park should have dispelled those questions, but in the aftermath of a 14-point beating in a Leinster final, it appears that answer is as open-ended as ever. When Niall Ó Ceallacháin described it as a “real killer” after the game, it was not an empty phrase.

And Galway’s need was every bit as great. Kilkenny were going for a seven-in-a-row in the province. Failing to win a provincial title after hammering the champions twice in quick succession would have been seen as a big failure.

Dublin were good enough to go down to beat the home team in Salthill two weeks ago, but Galway took flight in Croker. They were organised, they were disciplined, and they were far too good for Dublin. And they really were delighted afterwards.

It was easy to put your finger on why it was so enjoyable for the Galway people in attendance. They’re young, featuring 10 changes from last year’s Leinster final team. It was their first Leinster title since 2018, it completed a clean sweep of Leinster titles between minor, under-20 and senior, and it was a first win in Croke Park in front of crowds since the 2017 All-Ireland final.

If we were in any doubt as to how important this win was, watching Daithí Burke of all people whipping the crowd up into a frenzy as he went off in the 70th minute told us everything we needed to know. Lest we forget, Burke is from Turloughmore, the sort of place where using a comb might be seen as an unforgivable bourgeois affectation.

Put simply, a Leinster title was an achievable aim for Dublin and Galway at the start of the year. The big prize would have seemed out of reach for them, so this had to be their main ambition. The style with which Galway won it may have modified that ambition, but there’s no doubt that’s where the bar was for both these teams this January.

It’s clear neither Cork nor Limerick would have had their season goals achieved with a win in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday. It felt like watching a superhero go up against their nemesis, before you look at your watch and realise there’s still an hour left to go in the movie. But Limerick really enjoyed that one. Gods make their own importance and this was a local row that had real spice.

The triangulation began again soon after. The whispers that the losers would avoid Clare, and hence have an easier route to the seemingly inevitable “final boss” showdown in the All-Ireland, the last chapter of the quintet of games for 2026. This is the sort of loose talk that is allowed to prosper by championship games that nevertheless do not finally eliminate the losers.

We heard similar equivocation after Donegal’s shellacking of Kerry in the first round of the football qualifiers. But losing to your biggest rivals is always bad.

There will be no more of that in the hurling summer. Five games left, all straight knock-out, and each of the six teams left either submitting to or fighting to avoid the seemingly unavoidable gravity of Cork/Limerick again (for what it’s worth, I don’t think that’ll happen.)

Monaghan v Roscommon, Kildare v Kerry, Derry v Meath, and Cavan v Dublin this weekend have all been given a simple choice: progression, or oblivion. And for the losers of the four other games this weekend, they’ll know a similar scenario awaits them next week. The trapeze artists are rolling up their nets and putting them away for another season. We love it.

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