ALL TO PLAY FOR

Who will be making headlines on the club front this weekend?

- GARRY DOYLE

GARRY DOYLE looks at the big issues ahead of what promises to be an action-packed weekend of club action around the country.

CAN ANYONE else break through in Leinster in the face of Dublin dominance?

For a long time the Leinster club football Championship was unpredictable.

Now it is uneven. Dublin dominates. End of story.

Thirteen of the last 16 Leinster club titles have ended up in the capital, whereas there was a 26-year period, from 1976 to 2002, when six different counties, Laois, Meath, Offaly, Kildare, Wicklow and Carlow shared 20 provincial titles between them. Five of those counties have representatives in the opening weekend of the Leinster SFC club Championship, Summerhill aiming to bridge a 23-year gap to Meath’s last title; Athy hoping to end eight years of hurt in Kildare; Baltinglass a 36-year stretch to their solitary provincial title.

That was the beauty of the club Championship back then. Great teams rather than clubs with great budgets could win it.

One thing the Championship still has, though, are rare meetings between cross-border rivals such as Athy's fixture with Baltinglass. The towns are only 14 miles apart. Has the distance between them and the Dublin champions shortened?