Clare have ruled out agreeing to play Sunday week's National Hurling League semi-final against Tipperary in Thurles.

It had been speculated that the match and the other semi-final between Galway and Kilkenny would be staged at Semple Stadium on a double bill but county secretary Pat Fitzgerald was unenthusiastic.

"There has been speculation," he said, "but I would regard it as a bad judgment. I don't think the GAC can fix it for Thurles." NFL semi-finals are generally played in Croke Park, even if - as is the case this Sunday - Dublin are playing but Fitzgerald rejects the comparison.

"That would be much different. Croke Park is not strictly a Dublin venue. They have their own ground in Parnell Park. But I think it would be acknowledged that Thurles is a Tipperary venue. The match should be played at a neutral venue and our natural inclination would be that in anyone's language Thurles is not that."

The tradition of playing the National Hurling League semi-final in Thurles is not that entrenched although it has happened twice in the last four years. Tipperary's last semi-final, two years ago against Laois, was played in Nowlan Park and the other match that year, Galway-Wexford, was somewhat controversially staged in Limerick - much to Wexford's dissatisfaction.

Venues for this year's matches are expected to be confirmed on Thursday. Although the likely meeting of Clare and Tipperary in this summer's Munster championship is fixed for Pairc Ui Chaoimh in Cork, the feeling is that the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick would be a more appropriate venue for the league clash.

Bordering both counties, Limerick would be an obvious choice for the championship as well were it not for its capacity being restricted to less than that of the Cork ground.

Despite the decision of the weekend's congress to grant each province autonomy in organising their own championships, there are no plans to implement changes in advance of the coming championship season which begins in little over a fortnight.

The Westmeath motion was designed to allow weaker counties be grouped in a preliminary round on a league basis. This was to facilitate a guaranteed number of matches for teams who might otherwise be facing first-round elimination on an annual basis. Westmeath won't be able to avail of the dispensation this year, according to Leinster Council secretary Michael Delaney.

"We won't be changing our fixtures at this stage," he said. "It was originally an idea we had thought of ourselves and we put a request to Central Council last October to allow us to do that for this year. We wanted to have a round-robin for our preliminary matches but the application was turned down."

At last autumn's special congress in Rosslare where the hurling championship reforms were extended for a further four years, the question of provincial round-robins was added to the agenda for discussion.

"A motion was put onto the clar at the last minute. It was mostly relevant to the Munster minor football championship. After the motion was withdrawn, the president said that provinces could do as they wished and the Leinster minor championship will be run that way."

Last year's Munster minor championship was judged a success. After a preliminary round-robin, Limerick and Waterford emerged and both played creditably in the championship proper. Waterford took eventual champions Kerry to a replay whereas Limerick beat Cork to reach the final.

"That format will be continued," said provincial secretary Donie Nealon. "Cork and Kerry wanted to get involved in the round-robin this year but we pointed out that none of the weaker counties had actually won the championship yet and prevailed on them to give the experiment another year."

In relation to the senior football championship, Nealon said that possible alterations to the format would probably be considered for next year. "I'm sure there'll be proposals to extend the minor format to the senior. We'll wait and see what comes out."

Meanwhile ahead of Sunday's National Football League semi-finals at Croke Park, Dublin centre back Ian Robertson has been declared an injury-doubt. Manager Tom Carr said that the player's fitness was uncertain. `Ian has a stress injury to his pubic bone and we won't know about his availability until later in the week. We'll probably name him in the team and hope for the best." A team announcement is expected tomorrow night.

St Loman's Mullingar will host a tournament match to mark the opening of their grounds and sports complex next Sunday. It will be between All-Ireland champions Galway and Westmeath. The home county are in upbeat humour after the Leinster under-21 victory of last week. The official opening will be performed by president-elect of the GAA, Sean McCague from Monaghan.

A new magazine, Ulster Gaelic, has been published and is available this month in the shops. The initial print run is 10,000 and the first issue features interviews with Joe Brolly, Brian McEniff, Antrim hurling manager Seamus Elliott plus features on All-Ireland champions Crossmaglen Rangers and the Monaghan women's football team.

Lorcan Hassett was yesterday presented with the GAA Eircell All Stars Player of the Month award for March. The citation was in recognition of his outstanding performance in the All-Ireland club hurling final when a personal score of 1-5 helped St Joseph's Doora-Barefield to an emphatic win over Wexford's Rathnure. Since then, Hassett has featured in a number of Clare's league matches as the county reached the semi-finals where they face Tipperary on Sunday week.