The safety net is gone as the championship finally gets cut-throat

WITH THE NEXT stage of the All-Ireland football championship taking place this weekend, we look at the pairings from this morning’s draw.

Set aside all the multiple layers of context that will be dealt with elsewhere in a different piece, but as a championship pairing, there is precious little history.

We go back to the qualifiers meeting in Castlebar in 2017 however, to reflect on where both teams were at that time. Derry had been relegated to Division 3, a result of a constant problem they had back then of missing half a dozen influential Slaughtneil players otherwise engaged in club activity.

Mayo were looking to get their way back into the championship but Derry took them down the stretch and into extra time. Even in that period they had a James Kielt penalty stopped.

Mayo eventually won handsomely, 2-21 to 1-13.

Expect a huge Mayo crowd for this one. Derry? It will be interesting to see if the bandwagon has completely hit the ditch.

Tyrone V Roscommon

If there is one team that never strikes fear into Tyrone hearts, it is Roscommon.

In simple terms, Tyrone hold a 100% record against Roscommon. Occasionally it turns ugly such as the 1-16 to 0-8 win for Tyrone in Hyde Park in 2012.

Two sides scratching around for form all year, but Tyrone looked as if they have too much ring craft for Cork on Saturday as they boxed smart and leant on their veterans, Niall Morgan and Matthew Donnelly for leadership.

Roscommon haven’t experienced winning enough this year to suggest they will be armed with the confidence to travel to Omagh and get a result. The timing this year has been a little bit off and it looks like this is the end of the line.

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Galway V Monaghan

Memories of 2018 will rise to the surface for Monaghan. Back then, they made use of the new Super 8s format to get their season back on track after an Ulster semi-final loss to Fermanagh to wallop Waterford and Leitrim, before squeezing beyond Laois and entering the group stages.

They qualified with a double scores win over Galway, 0-8 to 0-16 in Salthill on a sunny Saturday night but lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Tyrone.

Galway will be sick with the way they threw away the top spot this year with a final quarter collapse to Armagh.

However, Monaghan’s form all year has been streaky and with Karl Gallagher in Australia and Darren Hughes retired, it hasn’t been easy trying to fill those gaps.

Louth V Cork

Strange thing. These two met in the All-Ireland final of 1957, won by Louth, and then in 2007 in a round three qualifier in Portlaoise that Cork won 0-16 to 0-14.

But this is the third year now in succession they will have met in championship football, while they are travelling up and down the league tables with each other.

And here is the interesting thing. Without a ground to play championship games on, last year’s group game was in Navan, where Cork won 1-19 to 1-17.

Cork and Louth are now familiar foes.

The year before, Cork won a Round 1 qualifier 2-12 to 2-8 in Pairc Ui Chaoimh.

In the league, Louth have won the last two meetings, played in Ardee.