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THE inequitable phase of the Football Championship is nigh. Those handicapped by superiority in their own province take up the obligatory brace position for whatever hurtles out of the Qualifier tunnel toward them.

In the case of Connacht champions Galway, the sight of Kieran McGeeneys Armagh coming down the tracks may resemble more an oncoming train than something light and bendable. It might be twenty years since they upended Kerry in an All-Ireland final for a maiden Sam Maguire, but McGeeneys squad have a critical pre-requisite heading to the big smoke in a fortnight battle-hardened momentum.

The Orchard have undressed Tyrone and Donegal on successive weekends and carries the sort of beneficial freight to Croke Park in a fortnight that Cork, Clare or even Mayo have not magicked up. The 3-17 to 0-16 defeat of Donegal in Clones on Sunday was every bit as resounding as it reads.

Theyve also kicked over the traces of Ulster tradition and shaped a new order. Derry and Armagh look like theyre future-proofing while Donegal, Monaghan and even Tyrone look jaded and samey.

Monday's quarter-final draw has delivered the sort of lop-sided draw that will have Galway, Armagh, Derry and Clare salivating at the very real chance of a road to the All-Ireland final.

On the other side, the winners of Kerry and Mayo will expect to walk into Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final. For Jack O'Connor's charges, Mayo is precisely the game they need to jumpstart their competitive batteries - but it is laced with trouble. Unquestionably, Mayo will bring the heat and lean on their gut checks against Monaghan and Kildare while also planning to test the pulse of the Kerry keeper and full-back line. Neither has been properly scrutinised this season. Whoever emerges should, at least, be better braced for whatever Dublin or Cork have coming down the line.

Munster, the weakest province for many, provided more quarter-finalists than any other and though Cork and Clare must deny it, they are both in a place now where the last eight ensures an upbeat appraisal of their season. Whereas Cork have landed the draw from hell in Dublin - given Derry and Galway were the other possibilities - the Banner will have learned from their League undressing by Derry and will be all the better for it this time around. If Armaghs dismantling of Declan Bonners side was the standout statement of the qualifiers, Clares win over Roscommon on Saturday at Croke Park was the head-turner, and it also worked 70-odd valuable Jones Road minutes into their legs and minds.

The manager Colm Collins carries the gait of a man utterly unfussed by the constant facility to sidestep what used be termed conventional wisdom. As Paul Keane details elsewhere on these pages, Collins has won 50% of his championship games since 2014 and made a pair of All-Ireland quarter-finals.

Is it unrealistic to think that Cork can live with Dublin for over seventy minutes in Croke Park? Probably. Captain Brian Hurley wasnt having any mention of bonus territory after their unconvincing 2-18 to 1-16 win over Limerick at Pirc Ui Chaoimh on Sunday, even if the five-point victory did suggest that footballs upheaval in the county is eventually starting to subside. But Dublin are in another orbit to Limerick.

Manager John Cleary belongs to a time when Cork trips to Croke Park were an every-year occurrence but right now they should be chewed to the marrow. The great deficit of their 2020 Munster final defeat to Tipperary after catching Kerry was losing the experience and value of an All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo. Not since the same opposition pipped them by a point in 2014, have they played a knockout game at Croke Park.

Billy Lees Limerick kept them honest, and then some, for the greatest part on Sundays Round 2 Qualifier, and only when the visitors lost Gordon Brown to a black card did Cork add 1-3 in a hurry to put daylight between the sides. A Brian Donovan goal on the hour had made it a three-point game, 1-15 to 1-12, before Corks Kevin ODonovan was felled for a penalty converted by Hurley.

We played Derry and Galway in the League, beaten seven or eight points, but we were not totally outclassed, reflected Cleary. We think we are after improving a good bit in the meantime, we have players back that we didn't have then, and not alone would we be having a shot at it, we would hope to be very competitive and with a chance of winning it.

For a county like Cork, with the players we have at our disposal, that should be a minimum. We are there now and we want to play in an All-Ireland semi-final after a quarter-final. We'll leave no stone unturned in the next two weeks to try and get there.

By their league ranking, Cork are around 14th best in the country, one behind Clare. But after the upheaval of a torrid League, as Cleary described it, and the loss of manager Keith Ricken, not to mention a swathe of squad departures, there is a welcome quietness around the camp now.

Weve been stuttering away, for want of a better word, and now what we are looking at is trying to beat whats in front of us. We wanted to back up Louth and put back-to-back wins together but were under no illusions, were really in the frying pan now.

Though he had a quiet afternoon generally, Cathail OMahonys 45th-minute run and goal underlined the potency of an inside line completed by Hurley and Stephen Sherlock that again chipped in with 2-10.

Billy Lee wore the hangdog look of a man afterwards whod seen a glorious window of opportunity snap shut on his forefinger. Reminding him that Limerick are top 12 in the country and preparing for Division 2 in 2023 could be interpreted as patronising, however relevant for context. Hell only have to look out the Ennis Road to see what might have been.

That ten minutes with the black card, we suffered badly, thats our own fault, but it slipped away from us there, he acknowledged. Weve work to do for Division 2 next year but we are bitterly disappointed now. Four, five-point losses wont be any good to us in 2023. We have to find a way to get over the line in matches.

I backed these lads after the Munster final on live television when we didnt do ourselves justice, but I didnt have any doubt that theyd step up and compete against Cork. Where these lads have come from, ranked 31st or 32nd in the country, to where they are now, you have to have serious courage to do that. We might never win All-Irelands but there isnt a team in the country would have done what those lads have. It would have been easier to walk away.

A version of Lees Limerick met Galways second string the Thursday after the Munster and Connacht finals, but in terms of foreign prep, its been slim pickings for the four provincial winners ahead of their quarter-finals. How they have managed the interregnum will make or break their summers and in that respect, Jack O'Connor has priceless experience. Kerry have eschewed the possibility of a game since May 28, instead opting for their favoured quiet camp at Fota Island in Cork last weekend. Similarly, Dublin and Derry have been keeping it in house though all made trips to Croke Park and Clones this weekend to study the form.

The qualifier system is headed for the dirt nap if administrators have their way and not many provincial winners will weep its demise. Ditto provincial final losers. Statistics indicate that three out of four beaten finalists lose next time this weekend it was a full house of all four for the first time in 12 years Roscommon, Donegal, Kildare and Limerick. Is it the difficulty of recharging batteries? Or overcoming disappointment? Or an issue with drained confidence?

It won't bother Armagh or Mayo, nor Cork or Clare, who all have back-to-back wins. With two weeks to refuel and refocus, the quartet of football championship qualifiers have no drag to be bothering them - and the win that momentum delivers in their sails.

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The Last Eight: Kerry have the All-Ireland quarter-final they need - even if it's mined with trouble - Irish Examiner