Tailteann Cup Preliminary Quarter-Finals: All you need to know

RTÉ News​

06-06-2025

SATURDAY, 7 JUNE
Offaly v New York, Glenisk O'Connor Park, 2pm
Westmeath v Laois, TEG Cusack Park, 5pm
SUNDAY, 8 JUNE
Wexford v Antrim, Chadwicks Wexford Park, 1.30pm
Sligo v Carlow, Kilcoyne Park, Tubbercurry, 2pm
ONLINE
Live scoring on RTÉ.ie and the RTÉ News app. Highlights also available across the weekend.
TV
Offaly v New York and Westmeath v Laois will be streamed live on GAA+. Highlights of all the weekend's action on The Sunday Game, RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player, from 9.30pm.
RADIO
Live updates on RTÉ Radio 1's Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport - and RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta's Spórt an tSathairn and Spórt an Lae.
WEATHER
Saturday: After a wet start to the day, cloud and rain will gradually clear eastwards leaving a mix of showers and sunny spells for Saturday. Highest temperatures of 12 to 15 degrees in moderate to fresh and occasionally strong northwest winds.
Sunday: A mix of sunshine and showers, with cloud increasing in the west through the afternoon, before brightening again by the evening. Highest temperatures of just 13 to 16 degrees in moderate westerly winds. For more go to met.ie.
We welcome New York
And so 16 became 11+1. The add-on, the footballers of New York, who again enter the competition at this stage. Perhaps, supporters in Leitrim are cursing their arrival, as they were the third-placed side to lose out after the regulation phase. A crumb of comfort for Stephen Poacher's side is that they finished a difficult year on a high with that win over Tipperary. Poacher is already looking towards next January, plotting Leitrim's escape from Division 4, no doubt.
New York have been preparing for this weekend since their Connacht exit at the hands of Galway on 6 April. More time to get used to the new playing rules. That said, the Exiles looked more than assured in adjusting to the changes, with Frank O'Reilly, Bobby O'Regan and James Walsh catching the eye with their two-pointers.
New York certainly put it up to the Tribes in the opening half, trailing only by three points at the break. They gave as good as they got, before being overpowered 2-18 to 0-06 by the Connacht champions on the resumption. They will obviously hope to stay in the game longer when taking on Offaly at Glenisk O'Connor Park. The counties previously met at the quarter-final stage in 2022.
A point that New York forward Shane Brosnan alluded to, when speaking to RTÉ Sport last month.
"We were very good for 35 minutes, we know we need to probably add on another bit of fitness and hopefully complete that performance that we had in the first-half for a full 70-minute game, he said.
"We probably just didn't have the legs to keep going in the second-half, but it was good to get the game against a team like Galway."
Preliminary and onto quarter-finals proper
So we have our pairings this weekend: Offaly v New York, Westmeath v Laois, Wexford v Antrim and Sligo v Carlow.
Watching on with their quarter-final spots guaranteed after topping their groups are Kildare, Limerick, Fermanagh and Wicklow. This quartet will have home advantage in the last eight, where the draw, live on Morning Ireland, RTÉ Radio 1 from 8.35am on Monday, shall be subject to the avoidance of repeat pairings from the group stage where possible.
Pairings that can't happen: Kildare v Sligo, Wicklow v Offaly, Wicklow v Laois, Limerick v Westmeath, Limerick v Antrim, Fermanagh v Wexford, Fermanagh v Carlow.
The quarter-finals are scheduled across the weekend of 14/15 June.
Surprise participants at this juncture
Ahead of the concluding round, both Westmeath and Offaly were favoured to secure their quarter-final berths. The same could be said of Carlow, who faced the already eliminated Longford.
But the trio suffered defeats: Westmeath and Offaly by the bare minimum against Limerick and Laois respectively, the classic sucker-punch in both cases, while Carlow were well off it against their Leinster opponents and were somewhat flattered with the five-point difference in the end.
Now it's a case of picking up the pieces.
For Declan Kelly and Mickey Harte (above), New York are something of an unknown quantity, as they look to get the Faithful ship back on course. Losing to a 75th-minute penalty against their neighbours was a jolt. In truth, they would have expected this week off. That said, you'd fancy them too see off their overseas visitors here, where Ruairi McNamee will surely get another chance to impress after kicking some fine scores when introduced last weekend.
Westmeath v Laois, on paper, is the game of the weekend. A clash of the maiden winners and last year's finalists.
For the Lake County, 2025 has so far been a year of agonising defeats, most notably during their Division 2 campaign. Relegation was the outcome there. More heartache last weekend when Emmett Rigter's point at the death denied Dermot McCabe's men a last-eight berth.
It was a nip and tuck affair in Portlaoise, where both teams had periods of ascendancy, one such period saw Westmeath score seven points on the spin in the second half to re-establish the lead. They couldn't push that out and were caught in the end by an improving Limerick side.
Laois' victory over Offaly was characterised by a decent spread of scorers across their starting XV and substitutes. Brian Byrne, in the full-forward line, was excellent throughout, while Mark Barry was coolness personified in slotting home the winning penalty. Justin McNulty really got a tune out of Laois throughout the knockout phase last year. That took them all the way to the final. Accounting for another of the pre-competition favourites should set them up nicely again, though the slight nod here is in the direction of Westmeath.
First up on Sunday is the clash of Wexford v Antrim.
The Slaneysiders could not live with Fermanagh's second-half onslaught at Croker and dropped to second in their group. They can have no complaints in what was their second defeat at GAA HQ this season after losing the Division 4 final to Limerick.
Antrim squeezed through in third spot in their group, when seeing off London by eight points. The margin of victory was significant in just edging out Leitrim for that remaining place. Late scores from Marc Jordan and Dominic McEnhill were crucial to give Andy McEntee's men another day out.
Wexford, on their home patch, should have enough to advance.
With Markievicz Park having work done on its surface, Kilcoyne Park in Tubbercurry will stage Sligo v Carlow.
A fair assessment of the Yeats County so far would suggest they have not quite hit the same levels reached reached in 2024 where they nearly took Galway's scalp in Connacht and then lost narrowly to eventual winners Down in the semi-finals of this competition.
They were expected to push for promotion from Division 3. That never materialised and they were far from impressive in defeating Tipperary and Leitrim in the group stage. Fifteen points down against Kildare, they fought gamely to reduce the deficit, prompting manager Tony McEntee to hail a resilience that hasn't been in this team here before.
Carlow, after that setback against Longford, will need to regroup. Manager Joe Murphy is accentuating the positives and speaking on local radio, said: "They're in a division higher than us and that, but you know, we travelled well before when we went to Fermanagh. We won't fear anyone and we will give it our all."
Sligo, however, are the best bet to progress.