GAA: Talking points ahead of the weekend

This weekend will see the penultimate round of football qualifiers played out with round 4A set to go ahead on Saturday evening, two matches that will determine who is set to join the provincial winners in the quarter finals on the first weekend in August.

On Saturday evening, Galway will take on Donegal from Markievicz Park in a game that is live on Sky Sports at 5pm.

The Connacht final didn't exactly go to plan for Galway and they will need to pick themselves up pretty quickly if they want to continue their season into the last of the summer months. The season started so well for them with promotion to Division 1 of the league earlier in the year and after all of the progress they have made under Kevin Walsh in the last few years they will be very disappointed with their Connacht final defeat two weeks ago and will look to bounce back against a tough Donegal team this weekend.

Donegal, on the other hand, had a very sluggish start to the season. Following their heavy defeat to Tyrone in Ulster they have put together an impressive qualifier run to date grinding out some impressive results each weekend that they have been involved. They have the momentum at the moment and will be hoping this can go a long way towards victory on Saturday.

The second game of the evening on Sky Sports comes from the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick where Mayo will do battle with Cork (7pm) for another one of the remaining quarter-final places.

Like last year, Mayo are taking the scenic route through the qualifiers and have had some very tough battles in the last number of weeks. This should stand to them when it gets to the business end of the season and key players like Aidan O'Shea are improving week on week. Stephen Rochford will be very happy with this and will be hoping to see further improvement this weekend.

Cork's last outing was the Munster final defeat to Kerry on the July 2 and so now drop into the final round of the qualifiers. Prior to the Munster final, Cork had just the one game in which they got over the line against Tipperary and the lack of Championship action might be a concern coming into such a big game, especially with Mayo playing three times in the last four weeks, something which we will find out this weekend on Sky Sports.

With all of this action on the way, it's time to take a look at some of the talking points and things to look out for this weekend before it all gets underway.

Can Mayo march on?

Last year, Mayo were shocked by Galway in the Connacht Championship and beaten in the provincial final sending them crashing into the qualifiers. The media were asking all sorts of questions regarding the potential of the team and also questioning their All-Ireland credentials.

To their credit they managed to block out all of the outside factors, focus on the task at hand and in the end came within a point of the eventual All-Ireland champions Dublin in the All-Ireland final. This year, the same thing has happened and no doubt Mayo would have preferred the direct route back to Croke Park but Galway had other ideas.

They now have one more qualifier to navigate with the next step being Jones Road. Can they build on the momentum they have built up over the past number of weeks and get themselves another vital win in their quest for Sam?

Rebel revival on the horizon?

The last few years haven't been kind at all to the Cork football team. Despite unwavering support from fans no matter what the result, both the fans and team themselves must be growing increasingly frustrated at the growing sense of under achievement in recent years.

Despite reaching the Munster final this year, they were well beaten by Kerry and haven't been crowned Munster Champions since 2012 despite finishing runner up in four finals since then. Despite this unconvincing form, there is an underlying feeling that Cork may not be too far away and that a breakthrough result will happen sooner rather than later.

They have a very good mix of experience and youth in the team this year and having players like Aidan Walsh, Colm O'Neill and Donnacha O'Connor can be invaluable when it comes to winning tight games and getting over the line. If the game is any way close coming into the last twenty minutes it's experience like this that has so often made the difference before and may well again this weekend.

How game are Galway?

Galway came into the year as reigning Connacht Champions and with an increased confidence around the panel and amongst GAA fans as well that they were getting closer and closer to dining at the top table once again and that Kevin Walsh was making discreet but noticeable progress with this Galway team.

Once the speculation and predictions were done and the football began Galway continued their steady progress reaching the league final and gaining promotion to Division 1 where they will ply their trade with the big guns once the 2018 season commences.

Their league form continued into their provincial campaign and the Tribesmen looked to be growing in confidence, belief and momentum emphasised by beating Mayo for the second year in a row and proving to everyone that they are getting to grips with teams at this level. Connacht Final Day arrives and Galway are well beaten by Roscommon.

In the space of 70 minutes, all of the progress they have made since Kevin Walsh took over at the helm is at risk and the game on Saturday against Donegal starts to become a lot important to Galway in terms of their progression and for their confidence as well.

Was the Roscommon defeat just a minor bump in the road or have they still got a lot of work to do before they can be considered one of the big boys? We will know a lot more following the final whistle against Donegal on Saturday evening.