Days of summer are here at last

GAELIC GAMES:MAKE WAY, the fair weather GAA supporter is coming out of hibernation on the busiest weekend of the year. With Met Éireann forecasting dry and sunny conditions, over 120,000 spectators are expected to attend the 14 championship games today and tomorrow in football and hurling.

The Leinster Council have already sold 41,000 tickets for their football semi-finals at Croke Park tomorrow – Carlow v Wexford at 2pm, and Dublin v Kildare at 4pm. This does not include corporate boxes, premium seats or the walk-up crowd so up to 60,000 are expected to show by throw in.

“Yeah, 50 to 60,000,” confirmed Leinster Council chief executive Michael Delaney, “which is looking good, particularly this year.”

There are three tickets outlets near the stadium at 53A Lower Dorset street, the North Circular road (across from Gill’s pub) and the junction of Clonliffe Road and Ballybough Road.

Twenty thousand are due in Castlebar for the Connacht semi-final between Mayo and Galway, Clones is expecting 15,000-plus as Ulster champions Tyrone face Donegal, while a similar figure is expected this evening in Kingspan Breffni Park for the qualifier double-header although this may be reduced by the Meath versus Louth game being televised by RTÉ.

Kildare, Carlow and Wexford supporters account for almost 14,000 Croke Park tickets but it is the roving capital-based sports fan that should swell numbers around the north inner city at lunchtime tomorrow.

They will have to familiarise themselves with a new Dublin corner back as Paul Conlon is rewarded with a championship debut, after three years biding his time on the fringes, as a replacement for the injured Philly McMahon.

“He’s been doing a great job on Bernard Brogan in training and not many lads around the country can say that,” said centre back Ger Brennan of his St Vincent’s club mate.

Pat Gilroy’s belief in rewarding excellence behind the scenes also sees Eoghan O’Gara force Kevin McManamon onto the bench, with Alan Brogan slipping back to a more creative role at centre forward, mainly because Rory O’Carroll was unable to silence O’Gara in Dublin’s increasingly important (think Kilkenny hurling) internal pitch battles.

Further evidence is Denis Bastick removing Barry Cahill from midfield where Michael Dara Macauley has recovered from a foot injury.

“We’ve had a number of games internally here and Eoghan’s been playing very well,” explained Gilroy at yesterday’s 8am press conference. “It was just impossible to leave him off the team. Kevin is still a very big part of what we’re looking to do this year.”

This is a reference to the guaranteed introduction of Dublin reserves when the usual running machines inevitably wilt entering the fourth quarter.

The meeting with Kildare is a repeat of the 2009 Leinster final, when 14-man Dublin edged a thriller, but the progression of both teams since then has been proved by last year’s All-Ireland semi-final appearances as Gilroy and Kieran McGeeney implemented their visions of how Gaelic football should evolve.

“It seems like a different era almost, 2009. We had flashes of what we wanted to do but I think in 2010 we started to get a lot more consistent about what we were doing.

“We’re really looking forward to this match because it’s a great challenge that will allow us to see where we’re truly at and what progress we’ve made in 2011.

“Hopefully we won’t be in our ‘lessons learned’ mode after the match. Hopefully we’ve left those days behind us.”

Of course, nothing ends tomorrow but another big shark shall be dropped into the second round qualifier draw that will be shown live on RTÉ Two at 6pm.

“Both of us will still be in the championship on Monday morning, but neither of us would like to give the other any kind of advantage at this stage.”