All-Ireland SHC Qualifier Round Three: There are so many considerations in this Guinness All-Ireland hurling qualifier it's hard to know where to start, writes Seán Moran

Each camp has had its own high-profile dissent, complete with comings and goings from the panel. This is also the first major championship match to be played on a weekday evening, an arrangement that makes novel demands on players.

Offaly manager Michael McNamara has characterised the match as between two teams "at the bottom, on the way up" but there are degrees of difference within that convenient categorisation.

Limerick have enjoyed the most sustained under-21 success of any county in two decades and have imported players and management to senior level in an attempt to emulate the achievements.

Offaly have virtually no underage success on which to fall back. Like the rest of the counties in Leinster, they gather the crumbs from Kilkenny's table.

But, aside from the starburst days of the late 1980s, when three All-Ireland minors were won in four years, the county has since had to make do without underage success.

Individual players have come through without the context of team victories and the continuing prosperity of the Birr club has also contributed to the county side. The next step will have to be the biggest.

As the outstanding generation, which backboned two senior All-Ireland wins, grows old and moves on, the task of rebuilding largely from scratch has fallen to former Clare trainer McNamara.

On paper so the comparison looks heavily weighted in Limerick's favour. And the bookies reflect that perception with the Munster side available at 7 to 4 on.

But the travails within the camp, scarcely believable earlier in the season, now appear to be of mind-boggling proportions.

Manager Dave Keane hasn't made much secret of his belief in his recent under-21 cohort's ability to step up to senior.

But what to many would appear the necessary integration of young and old hasn't proceeded smoothly.

At the heart of the tension has been the dim view taken by experienced players of their some younger colleagues' at times ragged discipline. Whereas the air was cleared in this regard some months ago, the situation doesn't appear to have settled down.

Having to drop one of his best young players, Eoin Foley, who chose to take a holiday in mid-season, is not the lead-up to a crucial match that Keane would have foreseen when taking over at the helm to great acclaim last year. Even Ciarán Carey's reappearance at training took place unannounced.

Offaly's own domestic difficulties have the advantage of having been short-lived - at least in public.

The frustration of the Whelahans at Simon's inability to get selected erupted in a boycott last weekend, but McNamara appears to be sticking to his guns and the AN Other in this evening's selection is almost certainly going to be Stephen Browne.

In management's view, Simon Whelahan isn't fit enough for 70 minutes, not necessarily the player's fault because work commitments have hampered his attendance at Saturday sessions that McNamara regards as the centrepiece of his preparations.

On the field, neither side has had much joy.

Limerick's fine comeback against Waterford in the first round didn't stop the champions winning the replay.

And the display against Kerry two weeks ago was notable for how close at hand the unthinkable was going into the closing minutes when a late scoring show conferred some respectability.

The changes aren't that persuasive. James Moran and John Mescall come in for Moran's brother Ollie and Foley.

Centrefield is still unsettled and Brian Geary's form at centre back has been mixed. Andrew O'Shaughnessy's unavailability and the consequent loss of goal scoring menace was a major blow for the Waterford replay, but that level of reliance on a schoolboy isn't encouraging in a senior team.

Offaly lost a good lead to Wexford in Leinster, a result set in dismal context by the provincial final, and scored reasonably well against a Dublin side that would be regarded as better than Kerry.

They have their own problems with Brian Whelahan never at his happiest at centre back and Ger Oakley still acclimatising to full back. They have worked hard and their young players possess style and technique.

But the preference here is for Limerick most of whom will be comfortable with weekday evenings in Thurles from their lengthy under-21 experiences.

They don't appear to be in the sort of shape that will further impact on the championship, but for this evening they may have enough.

LIMERICK: T Houlihan; D Reale, TJ Ryan, S McDonagh; P Lawlor, B Geary, M Foley; J Mescall, C Smith; C Fitzgerald, N Moran, J Moran; A O'Shaughnessy, B Begley, D Sheehan.

OFFALY: B Mullins; N Claffey, G Oakley, D Franks; J Brady, Brian Whelahan, C Cassidy; AN Other, Barry Whelahan; M Cordial, G Hanniffy, B Murphy; B Carroll, J Errity, R Hanniffy.