Mayo seek to maintain strong recent record against Cork on Sunday
The meeting of Mayo and Cork in Limerick next Sunday will be the 13th championship contest between the counties.
Mayo have beaten Cork in the last three championship meetings but the Rebels lead 7-5 in the head-to-head overall.
The Green and Red go into the game knowing that they have at the very least secured an All-Ireland SFC preliminary quarterfinal game. A draw or a win will mean Mayo top Group 1 and go straight into the quarterfinals.
It's a bit more complicated for Cork but it would take an unusual set of events to deny them a place in the preliminary quarterfinals at least. Louth would need to beat Kerry to take it to score difference, so Cork would be striving to at least not lose by much. Better yet, a victory over Mayo might acutally leave them top of Group 1, again depending on score difference.
Mayo are in pole position, however, with two wins from two and a healthy +6 score difference. Cork are on 0 score difference, with Kerry and Louth both on -3. Louth have lost both Group 1 games, however, with Cork and Kerry having one victory and one defeat each. The top three teams go through to the knockout stages, with the group winners going straight to the quarterfinals and the second- and third-placed teams going to the preliminary quarterfinals. The reward for finishing second is a home preliminary quarterfinal.
Back to those championship meetings between Mayo and Cork. Mayo, as mentioned, have won the last three, the last two – both All-Ireland SFC qualifiers – by a single point and the last one, in 2017, after extra-time. Mayo were clear winners in the 2011 All-Ireland quarterfinal (1-13 to 2-6) and you have to go back to 2002 for Cork's last victory over Mayo in the championship, when they prevailed by 0-16 to 1-10 in an All-Ireland quarterfinal. They also knocked Mayo out of the All-Ireland running in 1999 at the semi-final stages, winning that game by 2-12 to 0-12.
The other game in Group 1 sees Kerry and Louth meet in the championship for the first time since the 1953 All-Ireland semi-final, when Kerry won by 3-6 to 0-10. They play in Laois Hire O'Moore Park, Portlaoise, while Mayo and Cork square off in TUS Gaelic Grounds, Limerick. Both games throw in at 2 p.m. on Sunday (June 18).
The other championships games this weekend are as follows: Saturday (June 17) - Group 4: Clare v Derry, Glennon Brothers Pearse Park, Longford, and Donegal v Monaghan, Omagh, both at 6 p.m.; Sunday (June 18) - Group 2: Armagh v Galway, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co. Leitrim, and Westmeath v Tyrone in Kingspan Breffni Park, Cavan, both at 4 p.m.; Group 3: Dublin v Sligo, Kingspan Breffni Park, 1.45 p.m., and Kildare v Roscommon, Glenisk O’Connor Park, Tullamore, both at 1.45 p.m.
There are preliminary quarterfinals in the Tailteann Cup throughout the weekend also – see gaa.ie for details.