Draw and GAC throw up novel pairings and dates

Hurling qualifiers: In a surprising move, the GAA's Games Administration Committee has opted to fix next weekend's Guinness All-Ireland hurling qualifier between Galway and Tipperary for Pearse Stadium, Galway, on Sunday instead of Saturday, the day scheduled for the third round.

In fact, none of the three pairings drawn yesterday at Croke Park will take place on the appointed day.

Limerick will play Offaly in Thurles on Thursday week, July 17th, and the first championship meeting between south-east neighbours Wexford and Waterford takes place two days later on July 19th.

But it is the decision to play Tipperary and Galway on the Sunday that will cause most comment.

The effective postponement was sought by Tipperary in order to have back Eamonn Corcoran, their best defender, whose 12-week suspension - picked up coincidentally against Galway in the National League last April - will expire on Saturday night.

Asked were Galway happy with this, Galway hurling board spokesperson Phelim Murphy said: "We are, to be honest. They're the best team left in the qualifiers and we were hoping to get any of the other four, but we have to face the best at some stage. We agreed to toss for venue, but I'm not sure if there's much advantage in the home venue.

"We played better in the league down in Thurles than we did here in Galway."

The fixture means that there will be no live match on Saturday despite RTÉ's Sunday Game having announced that a hurling qualifier would be shown in the afternoon.

In itself this will cause controversy because there are already few enough top-class hurling matches broadcast live during the summer without a big attraction like this going off air, as it will on Sunday afternoon because the Ulster and Munster football finals are scheduled to be televised.

Already this year the explosive Waterford-Limerick Munster first round tie that ended in a draw was lost to television because of a ruling that the outside broadcast facilities in Semple Stadium did not satisfy fire safety regulations.

GAC chairperson Tony O'Keeffe said that the televising of the match had been a consideration, but not a decisive one in the face of various difficulties posed by Saturday evening throw-ins.

"We took the decision for two main reasons," he said. "One, a toss was the most suitable arrangement for the two counties.

"Both had suitable venues for the crowd expected. Sunday was by far the more suitable day for Pearse Stadium because there would be traffic chaos there on a Saturday evening."

He confirmed that, had a suitable neutral venue been available, the match could have been played on Saturday.

"Limerick won't be ready to take matches for another month," he said. "And the two other possible venues, Ennis and Portlaoise, would also have created traffic problems. There was also a request from Tipp to move the match to the Sunday."

O'Keeffe denied that acceding to such a request was in effect undermining the GAC's own suspension of Corcoran. "I don't have a problem with it at all. My feeling is that you should facilitate people where possible."

The switch of Limerick's match to a Thursday evening was brought about by the position of dual players within the county.

A number of them will be involved in the Munster football final this Sunday so the county's hurling qualifier against Offaly - a re-run of the 1994 All-Ireland - couldn't take place this weekend.

Should the footballers lose to Kerry this weekend, they could then be involved in the football qualifiers a week later. So the only option was to fix the match for midweek. Offaly agreed.

"Limerick approached Offaly and told them about the situation," said O'Keeffe, "and I felt it was very generous of Offaly to agree as readily as they did."

The final match, WexfordWaterford, is put back to the weekend after next because an undertaking had been given to Wexford that they wouldn't - unlike last year - be asked to play a week after losing the Leinster final.

"Where possible," according to O'Keeffe, "we had decided to give teams 13 days instead of six. With fixtures scheduling it won't always be possible, but we decided it was on this occasion."

ROUND THREE

Sunday, July 13th: Galway v Tipperary, Pearse Stadium, 3.30.

Thursday, July 17th: Offaly v Limerick, Semple Stadium, 7.0.

Saturday, July 19th: Waterford v Wexford, Nowlan Park, 6.15.