2012 MUNSTER CHAMPIONSHIPS: THE CHAIRMAN of the Munster Council, Seán Walsh, has said the council will be doing its best to accommodate supporters who wish to watch the Republic of Ireland in the European Championships.

Speaking at yesterday’s launch of this year’s Munster championship, Walsh said a decision was taken to avoid clashes with Ireland’s games, ensuring fans are able to watch as much sport as they want. “A lot of the GAA people are good sportspeople and they’ll be watching a lot of the matches on television, we’re aware of that,” he said. “We’re smart enough to know people want to watch Ireland and they want to watch them in major competitions. We have to respect that. We want people to watch those matches and go to our matches as well. We’re not in the business of scheduling games and making people choose between our games and games on television.”

Ticket prices and packages for the games were announced at the launch, with Walsh acknowledging cognisance had to be taken of people’s financial situations.

“We took the decision to price the games ourselves and, as people can see from the packages, they’re built around reductions, they range from 17 per cent to 33 per cent. From that point of view, we’re very conscious. I know people say that administrators in the GAA are not tuned in, we’re very tuned in on what’s happening on the ground.

“We are all family people, we all know that families are struggling with mortgages and everyday expenses. We have taken the decision that we will try to help families as much as we possibly can to get to our matches, and also the people on the terraces, which is where the biggest drop-off has been, 25-35 year-olds who may be out of work. It’s now 22 per cent cheaper to go into our terraces than it was 10 years ago, and that’s the only thing that I see that’s cheaper than it was 10 years ago.”

An initiative this year sees Tipperary play a championship double-header, against Limerick in hurling and Kerry in football, with the council happy to accommodate that. “In fairness to Tipperary,” Walsh said, “they came to us with that request and at council level we decided that we would run with it. I think it’s proving to be a very good decision because people are happy with it. From a Tipperary point of view, it allows their fans to come and see two games rather than having to pay in two Sundays in a row.”

Present on that day will be Limerick manager John Allen, who was also at the launch. While he admitted the return of Lar Corbett will make Tipperary stronger, he doesn’t expect the attacker will line out against his side. “I know people who know Lar quite well and, from what I was hearing, I didn’t think he’d be back,” he said. “I don’t expect to see him [against Limerick], but that’s a question for Declan Ryan. I don’t think he has been training so I’d be very surprised if he does play.”