Leinster stick with original senior venues

THE LEINSTER Council has re-fixed their AIB senior club football and hurling finals for successive weekends at the end of January – and despite the successive postponements are sticking with the original venues.

Both games were repeatedly postponed in recent weeks due to the snow and freezing conditions (the hurling final falling foul of the weather over three successive Sundays), but the football final between Dublin’s Kilmacud Crokes and Rhode of Offaly is now scheduled to be played on Sunday, January 23rd at O’Moore Park in Portlaoise.

The hurling final between O’Loughlin Gaels of Kilkenny and Wexford champions Oulart-the-Ballagh, which was originally due to be played on November 28th, will now be played on Sunday, January 30th at Dr Cullen Park in Carlow. Both games will throw in at 2.0pm, and extra-time will be played if necessary.

It all makes for a tight conclusion to the competition. Newly crowned Ulster champions Crossmaglen Rangers still have to play their All-Ireland quarter-final against current London champions Neasden Games. That game was originally fixed for Ruislip last Sunday, but given the similar postponements in Ulster, must also take place in the New Year – with the GAA still to confirm when.

The winners there progress to play the Leinster champions on February 26th of next year, in one semi-final, with the second semi-final, also set for February 26th of next year, involving Connacht champions St Brigid’s of Roscommon against the eventual Munster champions.

In hurling, Ulster champions Loughgeil Shamrocks will play the Leinster champions in one semi-final on February 18th, with newly crowned Galway champions Clarinbridge playing the Munster champions on the same day.

The Munster Council will later this week announce the date for their senior football final between Dr Crokes of Killarney and Nemo Rangers of Cork, after it too was postponed for the second successive time on Sunday when the Gaelic Grounds was deemed unplayable.

Both clubs were somewhat critical of the announcement to postpone the game again at such relatively short notice, but the Munster Council have defended that decision, claiming that while most of the pitch area of the Gaelic Grounds was indeed playable, a small section remained notably frozen.

It was at least agreed in consultation with the clubs that the game would be best played in the New Year, rather the re-fixing it for the Sunday before Christmas. However, the problem now is that the Cork football team will be away on a team holiday in South Africa for the first three of weeks of January, including several members of the Nemo team such as Paul Kerrigan, Derek Kavanagh and Brian O’Regan. As a result Nemo won’t be agreeing to a re-fixture until those players are back, which means a late January date now looks inevitable.

Inevitably these remaining club ties will thus clash with the provincial pre-season competitions such as the O’Byrne and Dr McKenna Cup. The Ulster Council yesterday confirmed the dates for the McKenna Cup, and which gets underway on January 9th with the meeting of holders Donegal and Tyrone, in what is a repeat of the 2010 final, at Healy Park.

The game between Cavan and Queen’s on January 8th at Kingspan Breffni Park will be the first inter-county Ulster fixture to be staged on a synthetic 3G pitch. In other opening weekend games, Derry play Monaghan, St Mary’s take on Down and Armagh face Antrim.

Most of the matches will take place under lights, with the final scheduled to take place on Saturday, January 29th, a week before the National League commences.

Also announced yesterday was the Armagh County Board’s intention to sell the naming rights for the newly redeveloped Athletic Grounds, which is due to open in February.