State of play: All-Ireland group stage permutations

After two rounds in the unnecessarily forgiving All-Ireland football championship group stage, we have a host of teams already guaranteed knockout qualification, albeit not yet sure of their final position.

We have another clutch of teams in perilous shape but with a puncher's chance of surviving. And we have just one team formally eliminated before their final runout in the 2023 championship.

After a sluggish opening, the provincial champions fared rather better this weekend, all four winning away from home against fourth seeded teams. Even if the All-Ireland champions again found the going tough, only just squeezing by their neighbours in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

The same can't be said for those they vanquished in the deciders. Pot 2, aka the losing provincial finalists, has been the weakest performing pot thus far, with just one win from eight games, and Armagh found it hard going to dig that one out against Tailteann Cup champions Westmeath in Round 1.

As anticipated, Pot 3 has proven to be full of sharks, the league heavy hitters who were knocked out early in the provinces. Tyrone are the only Pot 3 county to have tasted defeat in the opening two rounds, that three-point loss in a damp Salthill.

GROUP 1

Only Mayo are officially qualified here, the placing still to be determined. The probable outcome is top spot, with Kevin McStay's team marching straight through to the quarter-finals.

Some of the giddy enthusiasm that followed the landmark win in Killarney may dissipate after Sunday's one-point win over Louth, with Mayo's longstanding difficulties playing against massed defences still dogging them.

MacHale Park reliably continues to be the site of their most underwhelming championship performances, which is a bit inconvenient