There are four games in HQ this weekend – all are knockout, all have something to recommend them and there is a potential fairytale attached to every one. Sligo, Fermanagh and Kildare provide the Hans Christian Andersen link in three of the games; Galway not so much. Those are the quartet of underdogs and it hard to make cases for any of them, although one of them will surely surprise us all.

The smart money will say Galway are that team, with Donegal perhaps on the wane after peaking a little too early in the summer. I don’t buy that theory. My own suspicion is that Donegal are a team that might have been taking a breather, psychologically and or physically, and once they get the sun (or wind and rain) on their backs in Croke Park, they will kick on again.

The Tribesmen have a road-tested manager in Kevin Walsh, plenty of tradition and some very good young footballers who have a decent win over another Ulster side, Armagh, in their recent rearview mirror.

On paper they should make it hard for a spluttering Donegal, especially if the former champions cannot get going in front of goal. In Donegal’s last two games – against, it must be said, a pair of defensive teams – Rory Gallagher’s side only mustered 1-9 and 0-10. That’s clearly not enough to get into the last eight, so they have to improve here.

This game offers a form line that is almost identical. To reach Saturday’s game, Galway have beaten Armagh and Derry – the last two counties Donegal dispatched before losing narrowly to Monaghan. Working off that in a horse racing sense, Donegal’s wins were in blacktype races (Ulster championship), while Galway’s were of the handicap variety.

Donegal’s return to a relentless form of work rate without the ball and a serious injection of pace with it will be too much for Galway. But the winners will only have eight days before meeting Mayo, so not emptying the tank this Saturday will be preferable.

Sligo v Tyrone

The fiesta of football kicks off with Sligo against Tyrone at 4pm on Saturday. We have nothing to cheer the Sligo folk with except memories of their dramatic victory over the same opposition in the qualifiers way back in 2002. On that evening, Eamon O’Hara powered the Yeats County home in a shock to the football system.

Thirteen months later Tyrone were All-Ireland champions, the first of three in a five-year spell. It was Sligo that hastened the arrival of Mickey Harte and the great man is still rolling along.

We won’t expect any sympathy from Harte for Sligo, who cannot have recovered from the Connacht final mauling at the hands of Mayo. While only Sean Cavanagh remains from the Tyrone glory days, Harte is still getting a tune from a couple of players who mightn’t have gotten a place in the era of Canavan, Dooher, McMahon and O’Neill. It must be said that few would break into that team, although his own son Peter is making a strong case in recent times.

We can only hope the lively footballers Sligo do possess, players like Adrian Marren, Mark Brehony, Brendan Egan and Pat Hughes, can enjoy their 70 minutes in Croker. It might be sticky for a while but Tyrone will win this going away.

Kerry v Kildare

This brings us to Sunday and the routine wins that everyone expects from Kerry (against Kildare) and Dublin (against Fermanagh). Having won a few euro on the Lilywhites last weekend, whatever I have left from the Galway races this week will not be going back down on them.

Training this week in Newbridge will definitely have a buzz to it and they really should be relishing a crack at the reigning All-Ireland champions with the pressure off. Throw the form of free-scoring Niall Kelly into the mix and they have a chance, right? It isn’t enough.

The Kingdom can’t be cold after two Munster finals to sweeten them. While Kildare have pace and moved the ball very well against Cork, they were rarely if ever met on the shoulder where gaps once appeared to be. Very quickly the Lilywhites will find themselves struggling for air here. Their backs too will soon have Dublin flashbacks as Kerry exploit goal openings in the same clinical way the Dubs did back in June – five times.

It’s now five years since we had an outsider reach an All-Ireland semi-final and those were Kildare and Down. Since then, Dublin, Kerry, Mayo and Donegal have pretty much monopolised the last four and although Mayo are scheduled to meet Donegal in the quarters this year, it is still between these four. They have the depth and strength needed to cope with modern-day football. Much as we’d like to see it, the Lilywhites (last All-Ireland 1928), Sligo and Fermanagh (no All-Ireland) simply can’t do it three games in a row. One, we can hope for; perhaps Jason Ryan’s side had theirs in Semple Stadium. Kildare are on a high and they could ride that momentum into a fiery start, but Kerry in Croke Park are not the under-motivated Rebels in Thurles.

(By the way, a €1 accumulator on Tyrone, Donegal, Kerry and Dublin won’t even double your money – you’d only be left with €1.80. The other four, however, would net you €4,300 for a euro. Paddy Power obviously sees no shocks either.)

Dublin v Fermanagh

The choice of Dublin and Fermanagh at 4pm Sunday must have been made with the capital’s drinking emporiums in mind. The few Kerry folk who travel to Croke Park, along with the short journey facing Lilywhites, will be long gone by 5pm to beat the traffic. Eamon Fitzmaurice won’t be in his car, mind you, because Dublin are on his radar. He’ll stay on to see if there are any kinks in the Leinster champions, who will stroll past Fermanagh. A team containing Diarmuid Connolly, the Brogans, McMenamon, Kilkenny, Rock (and is there any point in continuing?) will find it next to impossible not to show their hand. These lads can’t help themselves. They will batter Fermanagh constantly, queueing up to stake their claim for starting places by finishing goals and multiple points. Fitzmaurice won’t be bothered.