Leinster Council look outside of Croke Park

CROKE PARK will play host to one less game in next year’s Leinster championship fixture list – and only four actual dates in total.

While the GAA are still putting the finishing touches to their 2012 master fixture list, the Leinster Council have released the dates and venues for their provincial football and hurling championships, complete with the designated live TV games.

Croke Park, like this year, will host a double bill of football quarter-finals, semi-finals and also the Leinster football final – but only the Leinster hurling final.

This year’s second round hurling fixture between Dublin and Offaly was played in Croke Park, on May 29th, although that was in fact a change from the original arrangement as it followed Dublin’s win in the league, which thus created an extra demand on tickets.

The 2012 Leinster championship will first use Croke Park on Sunday, June 3rd, for the quarter-final double-bill of Dublin against either Westmeath or Louth, and also Wexford against either Longford and Laois.

Croke Park won’t be used again until Sunday July 1st, for the double-bill of football semi-finals, and then again on July 22nd, which has been fixed as the date for the Leinster football final, and is actually almost two weeks later than the date of this year’s final, which was played on July 10th.

The Leinster hurling final, meanwhile, has been set for Croke Park on Sunday, July 8th, but that will be the only provincial hurling game set for GAA headquarters.

Dublin open their provincial campaign on Saturday June 2nd, in Tullamore, against either Laois or Carlow. Whichever team wins that will be out in the semi-final on June 26th, against Kilkenny, in a game fixed for Portlaoise.

That will also be one of 10 Leinster championship games designated for live TV coverage.

Meanwhile, the issue of the closed season was addressed at Saturday’s Central Council meeting in Croke Park and, as expected, resulted in the drafting of a proposal to next April’s Congress which will call for a “phased” closed season, where some counties will be able to return to training in November and December.

If passed at Congress, the new rule would be introduced next year, with the exact adjustment proposing that teams exiting the championship in June be allowed return to training on November 1st, while those exiting in July could return on November 15th.

Those knocked out in August will be allowed to return to training on December 1st, while essentially only the All-Ireland finalists in both codes will be forced to submit to the rule as it currently exists, and not be allowed return to collective training until January 1st.

However, this proposal still calls for a mandatory eight-day ban on collective intercounty activity between December 21st and 28th every year, no matter what county is involves.

An expected proposal to amend the Congress rule that has allowed the return of replays for all championship matches has been postponed until the December 10th meeting of Central Council, as it was decided that further discussions needed to take place with the provincial councils.

Finally it was agreed that the much-maligned the Interprovincial Cup competitions would return next February, with the football final being held on the same weekend as the Sigerson Cup, and the hurling decider to coincide with the Fitzgibbon Cup.

2012 Leinster Championships

FOOTBALL

First round

1 – Westmeath v Louth (May 20, Navan)

2 – Longford v Laois (May 20, Longford)

3 – Meath v Wicklow (May 27, Carlow)

Quarter-finals

4 – 1 v Dublin (June 3, Croke Park, Live TV)

5 – 2 v Wexford (June 3, Croke Park, TV)

6 – 3 v Carlow (June 10, Venue TBA)

7 – Offaly v Kildare (June 16, Portlaoise, TV)

Semi-finals

8 – 4 v 5 (July 1, Croke Park, Live TV)

9 – 6 v 7 (July 1, Croke Park, Live TV)

Final

8 v 9 (July 22, Croke Park, Live TV)

HURLING

Preliminary round

1 – Westmeath v Antrim (May 19, Mullingar)

2 – Laois v Carlow (May 19, Carlow)

Quarter-finals

3 – 2 v Dublin (June 2, Tullamore)

4 – Offaly v Wexford (June 2, Tullamore, TV)

5 – Galway v 1 (June 3, Mullingar/TBA, TV)

Semi-finals

6 – 5 v 4 (June 17, Portlaoise)

7 – 3 v Kilkenny (June 23, Portlaoise, TV)

Final

6 v 7 (July 8, Croke Park, Live TV)