Clubs get revised fixtures plan

By Shane Brophy

The Competitions Controls Committee (CCC) of Tipperary GAA met on Tuesday night where they confirmed a revised schedule for the upcoming divisional and county championships following the progression of the county’s senior hurlers to the All-Ireland Final.

By virtue of both Tipperary and Cork reaching the decider, their respective county champions in senior, premier intermediate and junior hurling will receive byes to the semi-finals of the Munster club championships, thereby creating extra space in the calendar to get their county championships played.

The byes are code specific so won’t apply to football where Limerick’s county champions will get straight progression to the semi-finals for reaching the Tailteann Cup final while Kerry’s representatives will get likewise should they reach the All-Ireland Football final.

The dates for the Munster Club Championships have yet to be confirmed but it is likely that the hurling semi-finals will be played on the third weekend in November, which would give Tipperary until the first weekend in November to get their hurling representatives set with the senior, intermediate, and premier junior football champions in Munster quarter finals on 8-9 November.

The Tipperary fixtures plan released earlier in the year had the county hurling finals set for 12/13 October with the football finals on 19-20 October. The revised plan sees the hurling finals put back to 26-27 October (Bank Holiday weekend) with the football finals on 1-2 November.

The group stages of the county hurling championships were due to begin on 26-27 July, but that weekend now looks set to see the quarter finals of the divisional hurling championships. The semi-finals will be played midweek with the finals on the August Bank Holiday weekend.

The following weekend, 8-10 August will see the first round of the group stage of the county hurling championships with the football championships starting the following weekend and alternating over the following four weeks, so essentially the entire fixtures schedule is set to be kicked on a fortnight.