THE INTERPROVINCIAL series or what used to be known as the Railway Cup competition will get the lion's share of attention tomorrow with football semi finals in Navan and Clones.
However, one cannot help feeling that public interest in these competitions is all but dead. The fact that the weekend will also feature a number of inter county matches is proof enough that the competitions are now very much towards the lower end of the agenda as far as spectators and players are concerned.
Ulster have dominated the competition for a number of years which reflects accurately what has been happening in football generally. They will probably be favourites again although club and county commitments mean that some players are not available.
Nevertheless they have been able to select a strong team featuring such players as Tony Scullion, Noel Hegarty, D J Kane Stephen King, James McCartan and the exceptionally strong full forward line of Mickey Linden, Peter Canavan and Tony Boyle. Ulster have won the trophy for the past six years.
If these players are in form it would be difficult to see Munster winning even with players of the calibre of Brian Corcoran, Mark O'Connor. Dara O Se and Gene Farrell in their line up.
In normal circumstances one would expect a Leinster Railway Cup team to be bristling with Dublin names following their All Ireland victory last September. But the players who broke through for Dublin in the summer have been sunning themselves in San Diego and only one member of the All Ireland squad, Brian Stynes, will be in the Leinster panel. Eamonn Heery, who returned to the Dublin team recently, has been selected at left half back.
Even so Leinster must be fancied to beat Connacht where football continues to go through a bad patch. An interesting selection is that of Mayo's Dermot Flanagan at left corner back.
Flanagan can now he regarded as a veteran but with Joe Honeyman on the right and Gary Fahy at full back this sector of the Connacht side will not be found wanting although they will have the unenviable task of marking the Leinster full forward line of Colm Hayden, Tommy Dowd and Kevin O'Brien.
The other strong line in the Leinster side is at half back where Graham Geraghty, Glen Ryan and Heery will be operating.
Victories for Leinster and Ulster are confidently predicted.
Elsewhere Tyrone and Derry meet in the O Fiaic Cup final in Crossmaglen and tomorrow in hurling, Wexford will play Dublin at Wexford Park in the Walsh Cup.
However, the O'Byrne Cup football semi final between Westmeath and Wicklow at Castletowngeoghegan today has been postponed because of the bad weather.
T J Kilgallon, the former Mayo footballer, has been appointed manager of St Mary's, Sligo, who hope that Kilgallon's experience will re establish the Sligo club as one of the top football teams in the country.
