The draw is proving not so popular

GAELIC GAMES:WITH 34 games already played in the championship the GAA might be quietly fretting about the absence of any draws – and they're not alone.

A couple of replays can help stall the apparent drop in attendances and at the same time raise the overall gate-receipts, while the bookmakers wouldn’t have any complaints about the extra fixtures either.

Ironically, it’s just a few months since GAA president Christy Cooney told delegates at Congress he hoped they would not live to regret endorsing the motion to reintroduce replays in all provincial championship fixtures and the All-Ireland play-offs, starting from next summer, and thus do away with the allowance for extra-time that exists in all games up to provincial and All-Ireland semi-finals.

But in the meantime the 2011 championship has so far been notable for the absence of even a single draw. Last year’s championship produced six replays: in football the Munster semi-final between Kerry and Cork, the Connacht semi-final between Galway and Mayo, the Leinster quarter-final between Meath and Laois and the first-round qualifier between Kildare and Antrim all required a replay; while in hurling the Munster final between Cork and Waterford and the Leinster semi-final between Galway and Offaly also went to a replay.

The assumption that the bookmakers might somehow be making a killing on this scenario is evidently not true: “To be honest we could also do with a few draws,” says Boylesports spokeswoman Nicola McGeady. “It’s usually a good result for us.

“Most people prefer to go with one team or the other, rather than take a draw, unless they’re having a lucky 15 or something like that. The bet on the draw is not really one of the more popular bets.

“We’re still about 15 to 2, 8 to 1 a draw, but if no draw shows up soon, our traders are looking in the next month or so to push it out to, say, 10 to 1. That might attract a few more punters.”

It may be a case of being careful what you wish for, but GAA director general Páraic Duffy also admitted at the time that the potential for provincial councils to bump up gate receipts was the key reason behind the Congress vote to reintroduce replays.

The Wexford and Kildare joint-proposal won 69 per cent of delegates’ support, although based on this year’s championship it seems like a lot of fuss over nothing.

Armagh against Derry in the Ulster championship semi-final in Clones is the only football fixture up for decision this weekend, and based on recent meetings between these two the first championship draw of 2011 is a distinct possibility.

Two of their last five meetings ended in a one-point victory, in both cases for Armagh – and while Armagh will start as favourites, the draw odds are just 7 to 1.

Armagh manager Paddy O’Rourke is reporting a clean bill of health, with the exception of long-term absentees Ronan Clarke and Gareth Swift: “Everybody is fit from the last day,” says O’Rourke, referring to Armagh’s impressive quarter-final win over last year’s beaten All-Ireland finalists Down.

Their five-point victory at the Athletics Grounds was instantly hailed as the best championship game of the summer, with seven Armagh scorers, including John Clarke’s 1-2, plus exceptional displays from Charlie Vernon, and Mayo recruit Billy Joe Padden.

“That’s something we need to continue to do,” says O’Rourke, “to repeat that performance, and find another five per cent. But it’s only one game won, and the players are very conscious of that. Derry present completely different opposition, and things are going very well for them. They’re a big, physical team, with a lot of good footballers, and a team capable of beating anyone in the country on any given day.”

Derry’s main concern is over captain Gerard O’Kane, who is carrying a thigh muscle injury from a club game, although one player raring to go is veteran Enda Muldoon, who just yesterday was unveiled as one of Derry’s coaches under the GAA’s new National Urban Programme, which is investing €200,000 as part of the effort to raise the profile of Gaelic games and participation levels in urban bases across the island.

Muldoon is one of 13 coaches, who will cover urban areas in Galway, Sligo, Dublin, Athlone, Drogheda, Bray, Belfast, Derry, Cork, Limerick and Waterford.

Muldoon will be the only surviving member of Derry’s last Ulster win in 1998 to line out on Sunday, and in fact the only active footballer in Ulster, outside of Tyrone and Armagh, with an Ulster senior championship medal to his name.