Championship2005The most important weekend of the GAA championship to date sees three provincial football finals taking place and the deciding fixtures of the All-Ireland hurling qualifiers. Nearly 150,000 will attend the football finals, including the Ulster decider moved to Croke Park for the second successive year.
Twelve months ago Armagh and Donegal drew 67,000 to the venue and the Ulster Council are confident tomorrow's match will attract a similar attendance.
"We're happy that the attendance will be up to last year's mark," said council PRO Martin McAvinney. "We can't as yet put a precise figure on it because the counties haven't been back to us yet and we'll be selling tickets over the next couple of days."
There have been complaints, however, that the decision to bring the fixture forward is a marketing own goal by the GAA, who now have an overcrowded schedule this weekend and the Leinster final on its own in eight days' time.
GAA president Seán Kelly has already acknowledged RTÉ's broadcast schedule has been disrupted but said that with the Leinster final in Croke Park next week and the Ulster Council unwilling to stage their showpiece on the Saturday there was no real choice.
Although RTÉ will show the Connacht and Munster finals tomorrow afternoon, it is BBC that will provide coverage of the Ulster final.
The meeting of Armagh and Tyrone is the first between the counties at this stage since 1984, a final that was won by Tyrone and featured the extraordinary performance of Frank McGuigan, who kicked 0-11 from play. His son Brian lines out for Tyrone tomorrow.
All-Ireland champions Kerry defend their provincial title against Cork in tomorrow's Munster final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Although there haven't been the massive queues that waited for tickets to the hurling final two weeks ago, it is expected around 35,000 will turn up at the Cork venue.
The Connacht final between Galway and Mayo takes place in Pearse Stadium and according to provincial secretary John Prenty a capacity crowd is expected.
"We've sold 31,000 tickets and there's only 100 or so left so it's a sell-out," he said.
The weekend also sees the draw for the All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals. The winners of the two qualifier groups will be decided, with Limerick playing Galway this evening and Clare facing Waterford tomorrow.
Provincial champions Cork and Kilkenny will be drawn against the runners-up in the groups - the losers of the above matches - with the winners being drawn against the provincial finalists Tipperary and Wexford.
Yesterday the GAA announced the draw would not be protected. This means teams can play sides they have met already. This is because the motion establishing the format at congress omitted that protection, which has applied in the qualifiers for three years.
The GAA Management Committee met last night to consider holding a minute's silence as a mark of respect to those murdered in Thursday's London bombings. The decision will be announced today.
The FAI have said there will be a minute's silence before this weekend's National League matches and have sent a letter of condolence to the British Embassy.
Meanwhile, the draw for this year's Tommy Murphy Cup was made last evening. The competition for designated counties who are eliminated in rounds one and two of the football qualifiers was won last year by Clare, who are ineligible to defend their title, having reached round three of the qualifiers.
Twelve teams are eligible for the competition, four of whom got byes - Roscommon, Waterford, Antrim and the losers of the Monaghan-Wexford qualifier - and will face the winners of the following ties: Fermanagh v Carlow, Tipperary v Leitrim, London v Kilkenny, Longford v Wicklow.
The competition is notable for the re-entry of Kilkenny to competitive senior football for the first time since the 1998-1999 league.
The three first-round games take place next weekend, the winners advancing to the quarter-finals on the weekends of July 30th and August 6th. The semi-finals are scheduled for the weekend of August 21st, and the final will be played in Croke Park as a curtain raiser to the All-Ireland senior football semi-final on September 4th.
The pairings for the All-Ireland minor hurling quarter-finals have also been announced. Limerick play Ulster champions Antrim and Galway play beaten Leinster finalists Wexford. The games take place on the weekend of July 23rd/24th, times and venues to be announced.
Tickets for the Ulster final are on sale from the Ticket Office at the rear of the Cusack Stand today from 11am until 5pm while stocks last. They are also available in the Drumcondra area from McCaughey's Shop, O'Neill's Newsagent, Benny's shop (Emmet St) and the Skylon Hotel.
