Full league details delayed

Full details of the upcoming National Football League fixtures won't be confirmed until after the GAA's special congress in Dublin on October 14th, but the schedule for the first three rounds have now been laid down, the dates and venues of which will be announced today.

Dublin are among a number of counties that have already made known their opposition for the first three rounds, which begin on October 29th. They will open their Division One A campaign against Tyrone at Parnell Park, followed by away games with Offaly (November 12th) and Kerry (November 26th).

The dates for the remaining four fixtures for when the league recommences in the spring of next year, however, won't be finalised until after the new football championship proposals are debated at the GAA's special congress on the 14th of next month. That congress was originally scheduled for Saturday week, but was then postponed to avoid a clash with the All-Ireland football final replay the same day.

It is expected, therefore, that the remaining league fixtures may be brought forward from the provisional dates if the new championship proposals are accepted.

A far from ideal fixture pile-up occurred this year when the league final fell on the same weekend as the Leinster football championship started into the preliminary round matches. The replay also then clashed with the first round of the Munster championship between Cork and Limerick.

The league will once again be based on four divisions of eight teams. Completing Dublin's opposition in Division One A in the new year will be Roscommon (home), Donegal (away), Galway (home) and newly promoted Louth (away) - in that order - but the dates depend on the outcome of the new championship proposal debate.

Division One B will comprise of this year's league champions Derry, along with Meath, Sligo, Fermanagh, Mayo, Clare and the two newly promoted sides - Laois and Cavan. Laois will open their campaign against Cavan at home, followed by a visit to Derry.

Division Two A will comprise of Wicklow, Antrim, Leitrim, Westmeath, Limerick and London - along with Armagh and Cork, the two teams relegated this year.

Relegated from Division One B were Kildare and Down and they will join Monaghan, Longford, Wexford, Tipperary, Waterford and Carlow in Division Two B.

The proposals to dilute the knockout format of the football championship were launched at Croke Park last month by the Inter-county Fixtures Schedule Workgroup - the body appointed by GAA president Sean McCague to consider the future of the championship in the wake of last April's annual congress refusal to accept the more radical ideas of the Football Development Committee.

Whether or not they will be accepted at the congress next month, however, remains to be seen. The proposals provide second chances for all teams in the championship, except provincial champions, whose compensation is automatic qualification for the new round of All-Ireland quarter-finals.

The defeated teams will enter at various stages of an All-Ireland championship qualifier which will operate on a national, open-draw basis. The plan envisages 29 extra matches in the championship but at an average of only slightly more than two matches for each county. Provincial championships will continue to be organised as usual except for the recommendation that Leinster's preliminary pool experiment will be discontinued. Other elements in the report include the retention of a separate National League competition and its organisation on a calendar-year basis.

But because of the need to organise fixtures in advance, should the proposals be accepted by the special congress then the following season's National Football League won't start until February 2002.

Offaly and Laois both earned their promotion with 100 per cent record in the seven games. Louth - who went on to claim the Division Two title - earned their berth in the higher ranks after finishing clear behind Offaly in Division Two A while Cavan, promoted from Division Two B, produced a late challenge that was sufficiently well timed to pip Monaghan and Longford.

Kildare and Down both enjoyed just one win in their seven games in Division One B, a similar fate suffered by Cork in One A, but Armagh didn't fare much better with just two wins from seven, the last of which came against rivals Tyrone.

Meath manager Sean Boylan yesterday named former county player Colm Coyle as his new senior football selector. Coyle takes the position vacated by Frank Foley, who recently stepped down after four largely successful years in the post.

Along with Martin O'Connell, Coyle has the distinction of being one of only two Meath players to currently hold three All-Ireland senior medals. He is, perhaps, best remembered for scoring the equalising point in the 1996 final against Mayo before being sent off along with Liam McHale in the replay.

The versatile Coyle played his last championship game for Meath in the 1997 Leinster final defeat at the hands of Offaly. This year he was player/coach with St Ultan's, who won the county junior football title.