Dublin and Cork commit to pre-season competitions

GAELIC GAMES:THE GAA'S traditional pre-season football and hurling competitions in January of next year have been boosted by the involvement of all the leading counties. Dublin will field a senior team in Leinster's O'Byrne Cup football competition and Cork return to Munster's McGrath Cup having opted out of the competition at the start of this year due to a clash with their team holiday in Thailand.

In the past Dublin have sometimes opted to field an under-21 team in the O’Byrne Cup, but intend fielding a regular senior team for their opening game of 2011 against Westmeath, which is one of the eight first-round games set for Sunday January 9th.

First teams drawn have home advantage, with Meath thus having home ground for their first game under new manager Séamus McEnaney, against UCD.

Reigning All-Ireland football champions Cork will begin their 2011 season with a McGrath Cup first-round game against Waterford IT, also on January 9th, although that will be a largely developmental Cork team.

Cork will be away again next January, with a team holiday planned for South Africa at the start of the month meaning most of their first-choice players won’t be available for the opening game in the McGrath Cup. However Cork will still field a team of some sort for that fixture, and will then have their regulars available for the quarter-meeting with Limerick on January 16th, should of course they get past Waterford IT.

Kerry will defend their McGrath Cup title won earlier this year with a sort of in-house clash against Tralee IT, also on January 9th.

In hurling, All-Ireland champions Tipperary will began their new era under manager Declan Ryan with a Waterford Crystal Cup meeting against Waterford IT on January 16th, with the winners progressing to a quarter-final clash against University of Limerick on January 23rd.

The Leinster Council have also confirmed their under-21 football championship in 2011 will be run off on Wednesday evenings, under floodlights, up to and including the final on April 6th. Floodlit venues have been decided on in all participating counties, with the latter stages most likely being staged in larger floodlit venues such as Parnell Park or Portlaoise. All first-round matches have been set for February 23rd, including reigning provincial and All-Ireland champions Dublin in their opening game against Meath, in Navan.

The Wednesday evening schedule is being adopted by the Leinster Council as one way of addressing the concerns of player burn-out, in that it will at least avoid the scenario whereby some players are playing championship matches on a Saturday and senior league matches on the Sunday.

The GAA’s TV broadcast rights announced earlier this week also included a new mid-week package for TG4 which allows them to broadcast live Wednesday night games from the various third-level college competitions and the under-21 championship.

Meanwhile, Tyrone veterans Brian Dooher, Ryan McMenamin, Brian McGuigan and Enda McGinley have all confirmed their intentions to continue for another season, with Dooher likely to retain the captaincy.

Cork’s Declan Barron and Tipperary’s Mick Roche are the latest players to be inducted into the Munster Hall of Fame. The two greats will receive their awards at the Munster GAA Awards on November 27th. Barron spent most of his footballing career with Bantry Blues and Cork where he won five All-Ireland medals, two at minor, two at under-21 and one at senior in 1973, and two All-Star awards. Roche played with Carrick Davins and Tipperary where he won three All-Ireland medals and four Munster medals.