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Richie Power will be fit and ready to tog out for Kilkenny in this Sunday's Leinster SHC semi-final against Dublin. Power has shown great progress and stamina in training and will be a welcome addition against Dublin.

With the World Cup now in full swing next Sunday’s Leinster hurling semi-finals are almost slipping in under the radar. Kilkenny who have not seen competitive action for some time now finally get a chance to strut their stuff.

It's a double dose of Dublin hurling teams in a four-day spell for Kilkenny, as the seniors’ first step on the ladder to a potential historic five-in-a-row of All-Irelands begins this Sunday with a Leinster SHC semi-final date at Croke Park (2pm). Michael Walsh's under 21 charges have home advantage on Wednesday night against the Metropolitans at Nowlan Park (7.30pm).

The National Feile na nGael hurling championships celebrates its 40th anniversary this year, as the nation’s biggest underage hurling competition comes to County Clare. More than 100 teams of hurling, camogie and handballers will descend on the Banner County next weekend, as sides from every county in Ireland and beyond prepare for one of Ireland’s most prestigious tournaments. This year Mayo are represented by the Moytura hurling club based in Ballinrobe in south Mayo. The club, which was founded in 2006, was the surprise winner in this year’s Mayo competition, fending off the challenge of Castlebar, Westport, and fellow newcomers Caiseal Gaels to take the Mayo Feile 'A' title for the first time. Moytura will be hosted by the Cratloe Club from south Clare in Division three of the competition, while also grouped with Broadford (Clare) and Castletowngeoghegan (Westmeath). Win, lose, or draw, it has been a massive achievement for the novice club to get to this stage of the competition, and hopes are high in south Mayo that Moytura will cause a shock or two to the more traditional clubs in their group along the way.

I always find it exciting when waiting to see what teams are paired against each other from the qualifier draw. I watched it live last weekend and once it was decided it would be Longford a good lively discussion took place about Mayo’s chances of progress. Most felt Mayo would be capable of beating Longford, a team that had a very mediocre season to date. When it was clarified later that evening that Longford had been awarded the home advantage for the match on Saturday June 26 (information that was not to hand when the discussion took place earlier), the task looked that little bit more difficult. I suggested in this column last week that it might be better for all if Mayo were drawn against a top tier side. Armagh, Derry, Kildare, or Donegal immediately spring to mind. Had we been drawn against any one of these teams and managed a victory, I feel the team could redeem itself and could certainly give us some hope for a reasonably good run through the qualifiers. However a match against Longford in Pearse Park just doesn’t set the pulse racing for me and I hope this particular clash gets the team a little more excited than I feel about it right now. I watched Longford play Louth in the Leinster Championship two weeks ago. It was a game they could so easily have won and they played without their star man, Brian Kavanagh. Their other star forward, Paul Barden, did play that evening, but was not 100 per cent fit. Both apparently are back training and will start against Mayo. Also in recent years I have attended the compact Longford venue and witnessed the home side frighten the lives out of very formidable opposition. I recall in 2006 a Dublin team looking mightily relieved to leave the midlands after scraping a two point victory over the home side. Longford sent Derry packing the year before in a qualifier game. Most of you will recall Kerry really struggling to beat them last year. So when their manager Glen Ryan suggested last week that he didn’t care who his side were drawn against as long as they had a home draw, you can fully understand where he was coming from.

In a surprise move the Galway management team has axed Claregalway's Barry Cullinane and Carna/Caisheal's Niall Coyne from the county panel.

Mayo's road to possible redemption has seen them drawn with Longford in the first round of the qualifiers. The draw which took place on Sunday evening, pits John O'Mahony's dethroned Connacht champions against the midlands men who were knocked out of the Lenister championship by Louth in Portlaoise.

Camogie fans are set for a triple delight following the announcement at the launch of the Gala All-Ireland Camogie Championships that the Intermediate camogie final will be played with the Senior and Premier Junior finals for the first time in GAA headquarters this year.

How refreshing it was to finally see a good honest championship match. The games to date in this year’s campaign have been either one sided affairs or ones of poor quality. So with the World Cup just about to get underway the GAA got a great boost when Waterford and Clare did battle in Thurles last Monday.

The eagerly anticipated draw for round two of the Claregalway Hotel Senior Football Championship has thrown up a mouth-watering ties between Killererin and Salthill.