Dublin and Kerry to attract first full house of the summer

So the fascination and old rivalry of Dublin against Kerry in the football championship has lost none of its appeal as their All-Ireland semi-final on Sunday week is set to attract the first full house in Croke Park this summer.

It’s not quite an 82,300 sell-out, not yet anyway, but the GAA have alerted any supporters still considering attending to get their hands on the tickets quick: a limited number of stand tickets have been released for sale to the general public, although the entire Hill 16 allocation has been snapped up, presumably by Dublin.

“What we’re saying effectively is that it will sell out, in the next day or two, so anybody still looking to get a ticket would want to get in quick,” said Gary Finn the GAA press office, “because there will be a scramble for whatever tickets are left.”

Tickets for both the Dublin-Kerry on Sunday week and this Sunday’s meeting of Mayo and Tyrone can be purchased online at gaa.ie/tickets or tickets.ie and in selected Centra and Supervalu stores nationwide.

Also, the tickets for Saturday’s All-Ireland under-21 hurling semi-final double-bill at header Thurles - involving Antrim against Wexford and Clare against Galway – are also being made available at a special price of stand tickets €20, with all juveniles admission free.

Meanwhile two managers safely reappointed for 2014 are Antrim’s football manager Frank Dawson and hurling manager Kevin Ryan, despite their somewhat disappointing summers. The Antrim footballers lost to Monaghan in Ulster, and were subsequently beaten by Louth in the qualifiers, and is reported that Dawson survived a narrow vote to keep his position.

The Antrim hurlers, meanwhile, were knocked out of the championship by Wexford, although Ryan, a Waterford native, kept Antrim in Division 1B of the Hurling League after a play-off win over Carlow.

Laois however have begun the process of finding a replacement for Justin McNulty, who has decided against seeking a fourth year in charge of their county footballers. Despite a decent qualifier run which ended in defeat to All-Ireland champions Donegal, McNulty believes he has taken the team as far as he could.

“He believes now is the time to move on and seek other challenges,” said a statement from the Laois county board.