Within an hour of referee Pat McEnaney blowing the final whistle at Croke Park last Sunday word was out: the Ulster football final replay between Armagh and Tyrone was back in headquarters on Saturday, July 23rd.

Before confirmation trickled down from on high, Armagh manager Joe Kernan told journalists: "Saturday week here or Sunday (week) in Clones. That's the options."

Minutes later Tyrone County Board secretary Dominick McCaughey confirmed the date and venue. Nobody, it seemed, considered the possibility of the Leinster final between Dublin and Laois on Sunday finishing in a draw and its natural replay date being the following Saturday.

Tonight the Leinster Council must make alternative arrangements should such an eventuality arise.

Most likely they will opt for Saturday, July 30th, with the fourth-round football qualifiers double-header to take place the next day, also in Croke Park.

"No other venues, other than Croke Park, have been mentioned," said Leinster chairman Liam O'Neill.

"There is a responsibility on the GAC and stadium management committee to ensure this doesn't happen again. I'm not pointing the finger but the games must take priority. There are times when the stadium is idle yet we seem to have more games there than we can accommodate.

"There are major implications to this in the long term," continued O'Neill. "The U2 concert already took out a Sunday this year. The stadium management needs to clarify whether the priority is for matches or concerts.

"The rescheduling of the All-Ireland finals next year because of the Ryder Cup pushes everything forward so what happened has put everyone on guard. Then there are concert dates set for May and June."

Next summer Robbie Williams and Bon Jovi come to town. The current problem arose late this year because the Ulster Council only switched to Croke Park when their semi-final pairings became clear.

Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna is adamant Gaelic games take precedent over any other event. "The priority is to the games with concerts secondary, if we can fit them in. Potential dates will be discussed with the Leinster Council and GAC before any final decision is ever made," he said.

McKenna admitted greater care could have been taken before such a rapid decision was made regarding the date of the Ulster final replay.

"This is an unusual scenario and we have to take some responsibility. We did speak to the Gardaí and some other parties but waiting until Monday may have led to clearer heads. It was an unfortunate incident but I don't think it was mischievous in any way."

Meanwhile, the GAA confirmed yesterday that due to the Ulster final replay between Armagh and Tyrone, the draw for the fourth round of the football qualifiers will not take place until July 24th. The draw will pair the winners of this weekend's third-round games with the beaten provincial finalists.

Games involving Mayo (beaten Connacht finalists) and Cork (beaten Munster finalists) will take place on the weekend of July 30th/31st, while the games involving the Ulster and Leinster runners-up will be played on August 6th.

In the quarter-finals, the Munster and Connacht champions will be on one side of the draw along with the winners of fourth-round matches involving Mayo and Cork. On the other side, the winners of the matches involving the beaten Leinster and Ulster finalists will join the Leinster and Ulster champions.

However, no provincial final pairing can meet again at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage although this is a possibility in the semi-finals.