Attention is already drawn to next summer

The first thoughts on next summer's All-Ireland championship are made this Saturday when the draws for the football and hurling provincial championships take place in Dublin. The draws are to be broadcast on Network Two from 8.05 p.m.

Next year's competition sees the introduction of the new hurling championship format, designed by the Hurling Development Committee earlier this year and comfortably passed at Congress in April.

Similar to the new football qualifier series so successfully adopted this past summer, the new hurling championship won't interfere with the running of the provincial competitions. The new format will have eight teams entering an open draw qualifier for the All-Ireland series, to be drawn from defeated counties in the provincial hurling championships plus Galway.

Places are to be allocated as follows: three counties who lose in the first round and semi-finals in both Munster and Leinster, the defeated Ulster finalists and Galway.

A special round may be organised to guarantee Galway a second match in the championship. If they are defeated in the first game, the three winning teams in this round, other than the team which beat Galway, will enter a draw ensuring that the Connacht representatives receive a minimum of two games in the championship.

The four teams which emerge from the open draw will then join the defeated provincial finalists in Munster and Leinster in a further open draw. The three winning teams from this qualifier will, along with the Ulster champions, contest the quarter-finals.

Finally, the two winners in this group will play the Munster and Leinster champions in the semi-finals.

As is the case with the new football structures, the reform extends to only one extra match for most defeated teams but it still presents the attractive prospect of playing summer hurling for at least a month longer.

The new football format received almost widespread approval but a committee made up of some of the original members of the FDC was set up to review the format and they have come up with a few recommendations to go before Management Committee and the GAC early next month.

According to Martin Carney, a member of the committee, it wasn't a question of making any radical recommendations because the format was adopted for a two-year trial period and any major alterations will be made after that period, i.e. at the end of next season.

The committee did come up with two major recommendations. The first of those is that no two teams should meet for a second time before the semi-final stage of the championship. That would avoid a repeat of this summer's quarter-final draw where Galway once again met Roscommon, as did Meath and Westmeath, and Derry and Tyrone. The second recommendation concerns the timing of the quarter-finals. It was recommended that the beaten provincial finalists have longer than six days before going into the qualifier series, thus avoiding the case this summer where Cork had to play Galway just six days after they lost to Kerry in the Munster final.

"It was recommended that those teams beaten in the provincial finals should get at least a week to recover," said Carney. "But they are minor recommendations for change and it is not a question of making any major adjustments at this stage."

football manager after a unanimous vote of confidence from the county board at their meeting on Monday night. There were no other nominations running against Halligan but there had been some doubts about whether he would be approved for another year.

In the end, there was no conflict and he continues in his role along with his two selectors, Michael Furlong and Declan McCarthy. Halligan also revealed his intentions to bring in some outside influence and expertise in the build-up to the league and championship.

Elsewhere, Denis Connerton has been appointed as the new Longford senior football manager. He is the second successive Longford local to hold the hot seat following Michael McCormack who was dismissed three weeks ago.

He served as a selector for three years of McCormack's term as manager and field.

Former Galway star Brian Talty ruled himself out of contention due to his club commitments with St Jude's in Dublin.

The favourite to replace McCormack at one stage appeared to be John Courtney, who is currently with Sarsfield of Kildare. Courtney was involved in a lengthy discussion with the Longford board last weekend. Connerton is currently working with Allen Gaels, the Leitrim side who forced a draw with St Mary's, Sligo in the Connacht Championship on Sunday.

The All-Ireland winning managers, Nicky English (Tipperary) and John O'Mahony (Galway), were yesterday named as the dual winners of the Philips Sports Manager of the Month Award for September. Tipperary defeated Galway in the All-Ireland hurling final. Galway footballers won their second All-Ireland in four years when they beat Meath.