Perth venue for All-Ireland draw

With confirmation that the draw for the 2004 All-Ireland football and hurling championship will take place in Australia this Sunday, final arrangements are still being made for the transmission back to Ireland.

The draw ceremony is set for 10 p.m. Australian time in Perth, where the travelling GAA officials will still be based following this morning's opening International Rules Test at the Subiaco Oval. That corresponds to 2 p.m. Irish time, although RTÉ intends to record the draw and broadcast it later that evening.

The championship draw traditionally takes place before the end of October to allow for the provincial councils to make their additional arrangements in time for publication deadlines at the end of the year. Yet Sunday's draw is the first to take place overseas with the travelling tour party, and it hasn't been greeted with universal acceptance.

It is known that the Munster Council, who don't have full official representatives on the tour in Australia, are unhappy with the decision.

And already the Leinster Council have completed their preliminary draw for next year's championships.

For the senior hurling, two preliminary groups have been drawn: Carlow against Laois, with the winners playing Meath, and Westmeath against Wicklow, with the winners playing Kildare.

The winners of these two groups enter the Leinster quarter-finals, where they will be drawn (in opposite quarter-finals) against Offaly and Dublin. The winners of these quarter-finals will join Kilkenny and Wexford in the semi-finals, the pairings for which will be decided ian open draw.

For the Leinster senior football, the semi-finalists of 2003 (Laois, Kildare, Dublin and Meath) are given a bye to round two. The seven other counties will be in an open draw on Sunday for round one: Carlow, Louth, Wicklow, Wexford, Longford, Offaly and Westmeath.