Dual problem for Cork

GAELIC GAMES/Championship 2002: Cork will be seeking a week's postponement of their All-Ireland hurling qualifying game because of a clash with the Munster football championship on the same weekend. Under current GAA rules the Games Administration Committee are obliged to accommodate their request.

Having lost to Waterford in the Munster hurling semi-final, Cork are one of eight teams in the draw this Sunday evening for the first round of the qualifiers. All games are due to be played the following Saturday, June 15th, but the Cork footballers are also in action the following day when they meet Kerry in the Munster semi-final.

With dual player Diarmuid O'Sullivan likely to participate in both games, Cork have clear reason for their request. Yet the GAA has a provision for flexibility in the scheduling of qualifiers when dual players are involved, a rule that was updated at a recent meeting of Central Council.

"We are obliged to give Cork flexibility here," said GAC chairman Pauric Duffy, "simply because it is in the rule book. So we are bound to move that qualifying game if they put in a request".

Joining Cork in Sunday's draw are three other counties that lost in the early rounds of the Munster and Leinster championship - Clare, Limerick, and Meath - and the two losers from the semi-finals in Leinster this Sunday (Offaly or Kilkenny, and Dublin or Wexford). Galway and the losers of the Antrim-Down Ulster final complete the eight-team qualifying group.

There will be further disruption to the scheduling of the football qualifiers. The Leinster football semi-final between Dublin and Meath, originally meant to be played on June 16th, now takes place on the 23rd because of the extra time needed to lay the new Croke Park playing surface.

The second round of the football qualifiers are set for the same weekend, June 22nd/23rd, with the losers of the Meath-Dublin game to be included. In this case it was decided several weeks ago that the qualifiers would also be played on the weekend of June 29th/30th. "The Leinster Council informed us straight away that they would be playing that game on the 23rd," explained Duffy, "so we were aware of the situation from several weeks back and decided that round two would have to be played over two weekends."