GAELIC GAMES:THIS IS the weekend when they begin to fall like flies.

The GAA All-Ireland hurling and football championships are in for a last epic weekend on the road before the teams begin to clear and the theatre moves to Croke Park. After this weekend, (barring a draw) only four teams will remain in the Mac Carthy Cup and the pairings for the All-Ireland football quarter-final showdowns will be clear.

The Dublin hurling carnival moves to Thurles tomorrow and, as ever, drama follows Anthony Daly’s team. Blighted by injury all season, the hurlers have refused to allow it to upset their ambition.

But yesterday morning’s news that Conal Keaney, their bustling and often brilliant forward, had been injured in a motorcycle accident on his way to work in the city is a serious blow to their preparation for what is a tricky quarter-final against Limerick.

Recruiting Keaney from the football squad was one of the key moves made by Daly prior to this season and the Ballyboden man has had a terrific influence on his team. Having reportedly suffered a broken ankle and torn cruciate ligament, he’s set to be a spectator for the remainder of Dublin’s championship. Losing a player to an injury on the field is one thing but having him felled on his way to do a day’s work must make Daly look to the heavens and wonder.

The disruption caused by his absence threatens Dublin’s preparation for a game which would bring them to the rarefied air of an All-Ireland semi-final.

Their game will be the curtain-raiser to a double bill, with Waterford, stung after the seven-goal lesson delivered by All-Ireland champions Tipperary in the Munster final, meeting Galway in the second match of the afternoon.

And in the football championship, it is crunch time for several All-Ireland contenders. In Croke Park, last year’s All-Ireland finalists will renew acquaintances earlier than they might have hoped.

Once again, Cork are journeying to September the unfashionable away, ousted by Kerry from Munster and anxious now to recover the ravenous need that made the difference to them last summer.

As for Down? The Mourne men have been an unreadable side this summer, with little of their traditional attacking pyrotechnics in evidence.

Instead, they have been doing enough in the qualifiers: getting through and hanging around. The danger for Cork is that Down will catch fire this evening as only Down can.

In Omagh, too, the bluebloods of the past decade will find out where they stand. Tyrone and Armagh meet for what promises to be a fiery occasion. Too often, big games for Tyrone have been presented as a last stand for the Red Hand.

But Tyrone are the ultimate shape-shifters and, against Longford, there were signs that they were close to tapping into that special game of theirs.

Mickey Harte has again gone with younger names, holding Brian Dooher and Owen Mulligan among his reserves.

Can Derry recover from the disappointment and fatigue of last Sunday’s Ulster final defeat?

It will take something remarkable if they are to overcome Kieran McGeeney’s Kildare, who are looking more sleek and purposeful with every passing weekend.

And the unsung heroes of this summer have surely been Maurice Horan’s Limerick football team, who meet Wexford for a place in the quarter-finals against the provincial champions: Kerry, Donegal, Dublin or Mayo.

Limerick join Dublin as the only other county with both teams left in the senior championships. Of course, one of their hurling teams must fall on Sunday.

By then, the field will be thinner and all second chances will have passed.

By then, the All-Ireland championships will be for the elite teams.