All-Ireland Club SF semi-finals: Gavin Cummiskey hears from the Nemo manager about the importance of impetus this weekend

Oh how St Gall's would have loved a crack at Nemo Rangers in the first week of December. The Cork champions had just annexed their 13th Munster title, but victories over the Tipperary, Waterford and Clare representatives hardly matches the route taken by Antrim's finest.

Overcoming the champions of Tyrone, Down and Derry has a sweeter ring to it - Carrickmore, Mayobridge and Bellaghy all being Ulster heavyweights. It recalled the plight of Kerry in last year's All-Ireland final, when they could not withstand the intensity of a battle-hardened Tyrone. Unfortunately for St Gall's, the club championship - with its two-month gap between provincial and All-Ireland phases - precludes the kind of momentum generated by Tyrone.

Hardly an ideal scenario but in a time when the intercounty championship, the Internationals Rules series and the National League take precedence, a convoluted fixture list remains. Even the rebranded Railway Cup gets tossed around the calendar like a beaten docket.

"It's a bit of a lottery but all you can do is prepare as best you can," said Nemo manager Ephie Fitzgerald this week. "The club championship is unique in that you can be flying before Christmas. We were very good against St Senan's (the Munster final) but you can't keep form like that going forever.

"It's something that needs to be looked at as leaving that much of a gap doesn't help anybody. I know it's very difficult with the intercounty scene taking up so much time now.

"It's the same for everybody but you just have to get on with it. Newtown (the Cork hurling champions) were an example last week as they had been flying in the county championship but had no competitive games (prior to the semi-final)."

Fitzgerald has some injury concerns, among them young James Masters. The man charged with filling Colin Corkery's shoes for Nemo and Cork carries a hamstring twinge up to Sunday's semi-final in O'Moore Park, Portlaoise. Playing for the Garda Sigerson Cup team in Wednesday's quarter-final defeat to DCU hardly helped.

"He only played a half. Yeah, his hamstring is at him but he's alright," says the manager.

Fitzgerald is missing the Dublin-based Maurice McCarthy with a knee injury but Cork midfielder Derek Kavanagh is back from a sojourn Down Under, and his return is hugely important to a club that have lost many of the old guard from their seventh All-Ireland title in 2003.

"Experienced guys like Stephen O'Brien, Kevin Cahill and Larry Kavanagh have all retired. We now have a mixture of experienced players like Martin Cronin, Niall Geary, Gary Murphy and younger guys coming through in Gearóid O'Shea, Paul Kerrigan, Ciarán O'Shea, Neil O'Sullivan. Fellas who have come up through the ranks with us. Still, there are three or four players in their first ever All-Ireland semi-final."

Nemo do hold a few aces, having played four games in the last three weeks. First, the Munster league final against Kerry's Dr Crokes cleaned out the New Year cobwebs. Then the Kelleher Shield semi-final and subsequent final victory over Douglas last Sunday.

They also squeezed in an excursion to O'Moore Park last Saturday that included a run-out against the Laois under-21s.

Still, to underestimate the

St Gall's breakthrough, and its importance to GAA in west Belfast, would be a grave error - and one Fitzgerald won't make.

"People were equating our game with Newtown and Ballygalget but look at the strength of Northern football . . . Winning the Ulster championship is no mean feat.

"They play very much as a team. A real pressure game."

A potential cracker as well.