SATURDAY 4 JULY
Galway v Cork, Croke Park, 3.30pm
SUNDAY 5 JULY
Limerick v Clare, Croke Park, 4pm
ONLINE
Follow a live blog of both matches on the RTÉ News app and on rte.ie/sport.
TV
Saturday’s coverage will be on RTÉ One and the RTÉ Player and will be preceded by the All-Ireland camogie quarter-final meeting of Waterford and Kilkenny. The Gaelic games coverage will begin at 12.45pm.
On Sunday, meanwhile, Limerick against Clare will follow after the camogie quarter-final clash of Tipperary and the Banner, with a 1.15pm start time on RTÉ2 and the RTÉ Player.
Highlights and reaction to all the weekend’s action on The Sunday Game (9.30pm) on RTÉ One and RTÉ Player.
RADIO
Live commentaries and updates on RTÉ Radio 1’s Saturday Sport and Sunday Sport as well as Spórt an tSathairn and Spórt an Lae on RTÉ Raidió na Gaeltachta.
WEATHER
Saturday: Dry but not necessarily sunny on Saturday with temperatures in the high teens or low 20s.
Sunday: The best of the weather is due on Sunday, with the sun making appearance, and temperates a couple of degrees up on Saturday’s values.
For a detailed forecase, go to met.ie.
All-Ireland hurling semi-finals weekend, and we should have two cracking games at Croke Park over the two days.
Leinster champions Galway are there, but there will be no traditional Leinster county involved in the last four for the first time since 2018, which also happens to be the last time the Tribesmen were kings of the eastern province.
Beaten Munster finalists and 2025 All-Ireland runners up Cork stand in their way on Saturday, while Sunday will see Munster champions Limerick go up against 2024 All-Ireland winners Clare.
Galway are looking to reach the final for the first time since their 2018 defeat to Limerick, and for the eighth time this century.
Their journey through the Leinster Championship was impressive, culminating in a straightforward win over Dublin in the final by 14 points.
Galway claimed a fourth Leinster crown in June
Their only reversal in the round-robin stage came against the Dubs in Salthill, but they impressed as they saw off defending champions Kilkenny by 15 points, Offaly – who would finish third – by 11 points and Wexford by eight, a victory which included a 21-point turnaround.
And while the Leinster Championship has been the poor provincial relation in this decade, Micheál Donoghue’s side looked a class above the competition for most of the late spring and early summer.
After finishing fourth in Leinster in 2024, and reaching last year’s quarter-final, Galway are clearly a team heading in the right direction.
They last made the semis back in 2023 when they lost out to Limerick. They were beaten by the same opposition the year before, as well as 2020, and last won at this stage in 2018 when they overcame Clare after a replay.
Their last championship meeting with Cork was in 2022 when Jack Grealish and Conor Whelan goals helped them to get over the line by the narrowest of margins in the All-Ireland quarter-final at Thurles.
That marked a fifth championship win on the spin for the Tribesmen over the Rebels, and you have to go back to 2008 for the Munster men’s last championship victory in meetings between the pair. But Cork did come out on top in the league in February, by 2-20 to 1-21, and do hold the upper hand overall in championship, having won 25 of the 34 meetings between the counties.
Cork have played in the All-Ireland semi-final in three of the last five years, winning on each occasion against Kilkenny, Limerick and Dublin. Their last loss at this stage came back in 2018 against Limerick.
Cork are aiming to reach a third All-Ireland hurling final on the bounce
The supporters have bought into this team’s journey, despite the disappointment in last year’s All-Ireland final defeat to Tipperary, a game where their second-half collapse was noteworthy.
They’ve lost two finals since, in the National Hurling League and the Munster decider, so will this be the year they finally go the whole way?
Like Galway, they have five championship victories from six games this year, winning all their games in the provincial round-robin, before their comprehensive quarter-final win over Offaly the last day.
Sunday’s semi-final is an all-Munster affair as Limerick look to get continue their journey to a first All-Ireland final in three years.
Since then they’ve lost a semi-final to Cork and a quarter-final to Dublin, but they look like a different outfit this year.
The spring heralded league success as, after an opening day defeat to Waterford, they won six games on the spin, including the decider against the Rebels.
Their Munster round-robin record read three wins and one loss en route to the final, as Cork gained a bit of revenge. But it was a case of he who laughs last, laughs loudest as they got their own revenge in the provincial final against the Rebels.
Since 2018, we have been witnessing Limerick’s greatest ever era. Whether we’ve truly come to the end of it, or the last two years were just a pause, will become clear between now and 19 July.
This will be their fifth semi-final this decade, winning against three times and Waterford once, before that reversal against the Rebels two years ago. They also reached the All-Ireland final in 2018 after beating Cork in extra time, before losing their 2019 semi-final to Kilkenny in controversial circumstances.
Limerick comfortably won the Munster round-robin meeting between against Clare in May by 15 points, but the Banner did win the championship meeting in 2025, their only victory in a disappointing All-Ireland defence.
The counties have met once before in an All-Ireland semi-final as Clare emerged victorious by seven points en route to the 2013 All-Ireland title.
After the disappointment of 2025, the Banner have reached this stage with wins over Waterford and Tipperary, but defeats to Limerick and Cork saw them finish third in the province. They had far too much for Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-final two weeks ago.
This will be their fourth semi-final appearance this decade, losing to Kilkenny in two consecutive years before finally getting over the Cats in 2024.