Galway won't fancy away trip

The complete fixture list for next summer's provincial competitions have now been finalised following yesterday's announcement of the dates and venues of the Connacht football championship.

Top of the bill will be the first-round meeting of All-Ireland champions Galway and Connacht champions Roscommon, which has been set for Hyde Park on May 19th.

Last summer saw Roscommon cause one of the biggest surprises of the championship by beating Galway in Tuam, and then go on to win their first provincial title in 10 years.

Galway though got the upper hand when the sides met again in the new All-Ireland quarter-finals but a trip into Roscommon to open the defence of their title is hardly one that the All-Ireland champions will relish.

The winners will then have to travel to Mayo, who play host to the first semi-final at McHale Park on June 2nd. The second semi-final has been set for the following Sunday, June 9th, and will involve the winners of the preliminary games between Sligo and New York and London and Leitrim.

The first of those has Sligo travelling to New York's Gaelic Park, a game that will take place on either April 28th or May 5th - a decision to be finalised by Sligo. Leitrim must also travel to London on May 25th.

If Sligo beat New York their semi-final will be in Sligo. If it's New York against Leitrim the venue will be Carrick-on-Shannon. And in the unlikely scenario of it being New York against London then Castlebar will be the venue.

The final has been set for June 30th, although the venue won't be decided until the pairing is known.

Now, more than ever, the month of May has become one of the most congested in the championship. All the provincial campaigns have been given earlier starts in order to facilitate the adjustments to the qualifier series.

It means 14 football championship matches will now take place in May, as well as seven games in the hurling championship. Last month, Central Council agreed at least two weeks should separate the All-Ireland qualifiers from the provincial finals, with a similar distance between the earlier rounds if possible.

The Galway-Roscommon scenario, where teams that had met previously in the championship also met in the quarter-final, won't be repeated next summer. The unfortunate fate that also fell to Westmeath and Meath, and Tyrone and Derry, will be avoided as repeat meetings have been ruled out for the quarter-final stages.

The Connacht fixtures will now be incorporated into the Games Administration Committee's master fixtures list for 2002, which will also include the dates for the qualifier rounds and other post-provincial finals fixtures and are due to be announced shortly.

Croke Park has stated, however, that some minor adjustments made in consultation with the provincial councils may yet be necessary.

The new qualifier round of the hurling championship, which is set to include the three teams that fail to reach the Munster and Leinster semi-finals, plus the beaten Ulster finalists and Galway, has also to be squeezed into the fixture list.