All-Ireland SFC Quarter-finals: The GAA are set to move Dublin's All-Ireland quarter-final to a separate date to accommodate the expected crowds. The Central Games Administration Committee (CGAC) will meet next Monday to consider arrangements for the fourth-round qualifiers and the quarter-finals.

Dublin are scheduled to play in the double bill on August 13th. Complicating matters is that the Ulster champions, Armagh or Tyrone, are also due to play on the same programme.

Given that the Ulster counties attracted 60,000 to their drawn provincial final last week, and that Dublin's last two matches have been sell-outs, there is concern that Croke Park would not be able to cater for the double crowds.

"We have discussed it," said CGAC chair Tony O'Keeffe, "but we have to get round four of the qualifiers out of the way first.

"Potentially you could have Dublin playing Tyrone and Armagh-Laois. That's the way the draw is structured. If that comes out, you'd have to look at it again.

"Had Dublin lost at the weekend the problem wouldn't even have been as bad, but now that they've won Leinster, the crowds will be really out."

The problem for O'Keeffe and his colleagues is that the Croke Park schedule for August is already very crowded, and the most obvious date for a separate fixture is Saturday, August 20th.

But were the teams to draw that day they would then be involved in three matches in three weeks, culminating in the All-Ireland semi-final on September 4th.

"We would be very much in favour of a single fixture," said Dublin chief executive John Costello.

"We'd only be getting an allocation of 20,000 if the double bill went ahead. Even from the GAA's point of view it would be throwing money away."

Three years ago, when Dublin were last Leinster champions, their quarter-final against Donegal was staged on the same afternoon as the Cork-Mayo match.

The double bill attracted 77,298 spectators, and after the Dublin-Donegal tie ended level, the replay was attended by 79,057.

"The difference then," according to Costello, "is that Cork hardly sold any and we were able to get most of what was left over. With potentially both Armagh and Tyrone involved on the same day it would be crazy.

"Demand is, if anything, greater now than three years ago. For instance, I've never seen as many people on the pitch after winning a provincial final as were there on Sunday."

According to O'Keeffe, demand for the fourth round of the qualifiers isn't expected to be anything near that of the quarter-final.

"It's probably the first time that you haven't any major counties, in terms of support, coming through the qualifier system," he said.

"In recent years you've seen Armagh, Tyrone and Dublin all involved, but this year the round three winners are Derry, Sligo, Monaghan and Cavan, so the next qualifier round will be easy to arrange."

O'Keeffe also revealed that the CGAC are likely to move the weekend's draw for the fourth round to Saturday evening so that it fits in with the Ulster final replay, rather than being performed after the hurling quarter-finals on Sunday.

The CGAC chair also backed GAA president Seán Kelly's call last week for the protections governing the draw to be removed. O'Keeffe pointed out that this practice, whereby counties who have played already can't be drawn together again any earlier than All-Ireland semi-final stage, is now contributing to fixture problems.

"Increasingly counties want to know their dates in plenty of time to organise club fixtures," he said, "and we have found ourselves hampered by having to postpone draws until we see who comes through replays.

"That's probably justifiable in the first and second rounds, when we have plenty of time, but at this stage of the championship it's becoming a problem.

"I also think it's unfair on some counties because it can push a difficult team on to another county simply because the alternative pairing has been played already.

"That would be a possible tweaking that would allow us make a draw on a set day without waiting to see who else was going to be in the hat."

That very situation forced the delay of this year's fourth-round draw because both Armagh and Tyrone had already played two of the teams coming through, Derry and Cavan, so the CGAC needed the identity of the beaten finalist before they could make the draw.