National League

Jan 08 2026

Playoff hopefuls meet relegation candidates in Domino’s Men’s Super League

A game with huge implications at both ends of the table gets this weekend's Domino's Men's Super League slate underway as Energywise Ireland Neptune travel over 400km to Newforge to face Belfast Star on Saturday.

Both sides will be feeling refreshed after a week off to ring in the new year with the National Cup semi-finals taking over in Cork last weekend. After two consecutive defeats, Star got their season back on track last time out with a 23-point victory over Sligo which took them to second place in the standings at 9-3 for the season. Head coach Adrian Fulton is wary of how fast things can change for any of the playoff hopeful at this level.

“We have put ourselves in a good position to push for a home playoff quarter-final, but there is a long way to go and with the depth of the league, you can’t look beyond the next game or you will lose. There are just too many good teams. We have plenty of depth but there are areas in which we must improve if we are going to win come the playoffs”.

Adrian Fulton, Head Coach, Belfast Star

For Neptune, they are coming off of arguably their most crucial victory of the season after a 95-77 triumph over local Cork rivals and fellow relegation candidates UCC Demons. The win put a game buffer between Neptune and Demons as Neptune reached 3-9 and sit in 11^th. Head coach Ciaran Kiveney is optimistic they can continue the resurrection of their season when they head north on Saturday.

“Belfast are at the opposite end of the table of us and rightly so as they have been playing some fantastic basketball, we are looking to keep our turnaround in form going and hopefully we will be able to cause an upset”.

Ciaran Kiveney, Head Coach, Energywise Ireland Neptune

Limerick Celtics fell just short in Cork at the weekend as they suffered a three-point overtime defeat to league leaders Ballincollig in the National Cup semi-finals. This weekend, they host EJ Sligo All-Stars who sit one spot below Celtics with an identical 4-8 record. Sligo will be looking to stop the rot as they are currently on a four-game winless streak in the Super League. Celtics have started to find their feet in their first season with two wins out of their last four. The Limerick side's American guard AJ Williams has seen his own upturn in form and finds himself in second in points scored across the league. Sligo will be aiming for a repeat of the return fixture where they defeated Celtics on the buzzer earlier in the season.

Another fixture that is bound to have massive implications in the playoff race sees third-placed Killester travelling to Griffith College Éanna, who currently sit in fourth. After a rough few weeks due to injuries to Killester’s pro’s, they’ve managed to recover and get back on track with three wins on the bounce including wins against other members of the chasing pack for the playoffs in Belfast and St. Vincent’s. Éanna have won four of their last six games and also hold the bragging rights over Killester after defeating them by 11 points in IWA back in October.

UCD Sports Centre will showcase a cup semi-final rematch as UCD Marian look to get revenge on Garvey’s Tralee Warriors after Tralee knocked out Marian last weekend to advance to the Domino's MSL National Cup final in two weeks’. Marian will be hoping to improve on the offensive side, as they saw just one quarter of play last weekend with more than 20 points. Head coach Ioannis Liapakis said they will look to rectify the errors of last weekend in order to maintain their playoff push.

“Saturday’s game vs Tralee is going to be another difficult task for us. Tralee are a great team with a great coach and they proved it to us last Saturday in the cup. This Saturday will be a great opportunity to learn from our past mistakes and try to correct them so we will be able to win the game”.

Ioannis Liapakis, Head Coach, UCD Marian

UCC Demons could potentially drag other teams into the relegation fight as they host Flexachem KCYMS on Saturday. Demons are currently bottom of the table after the loss to Neptune two weeks ago. But Killorglin themselves currently sit on four wins, level with Sligo and Limerick Celtics. With Sligo and Limerick facing each other and Neptune travelling to Belfast, a win for Demons could leave potentially four teams separated at the bottom of the table by a singular win should Demons pick up their third win of the season. A win for Killorglin could go a long way in hunting for that final playoff spot which currently has three sides level for. However, a loss in Kerry could leave them in an entirely different situation come the end of this weekend.

Amidst all of the drama across the Domino’s Men’s Super League, league leaders Ballincollig secured their 13^thconsecutive victory of the season to reach the National Cup final. This weekend, the Cork side travel to Glasnevin to face St. Vincent’s on Saturday night. Vincent’s find themselves finely poised at 6-6 and sitting in sixth just one win short of fifth position. Ballincollig are 10-2 in the league after starting the season 0-2. They are currently one win ahead of Belfast Star. The trio of Latrell Jossell, Latavious Mitchell and the December player of the month, Josh Steel, have powered Ballincollig to 13 straight wins which has also seen head coach Ciaran O’ Sullivan earn coach of the month for December too.

All of the high-stakes action this weekend will be decided live and exclusive on BITV.