County Board confirm Club schedule
County Board confirm Club schedule
By Shane Brophy
Following the progress in the opening up the country from the recent Covid-19 restrictions, the management committee of Tipperary County Board ratified the revised FBD Insurance County Championship dates and first round fixtures in both hurling and football.
The key changes see the removal of the divisional link in senior & intermediate hurling; no quarter finals in senior and intermediate football. However, CCC chairman Joe Kennedy
The action will get under way on the weekend of July 18/19 with the first round of the Senior and Intermediate Football championships.
The following weekend, July 25/26 will see the first round of the Senior, Séamus Ó Riain and Intermediate Hurling championships take place.
On Monday night, the CCC of the Tipperary County Board confirmed the fixtures, dates, times and venues for the first round games and they are as follows:
Friday 17th July
Senior Football Championship
Eire Og Annacarty v Moycarkey/Borris in Clonoulty @ 7.30pm
Loughmore/Castleiney v Ballyporeen in Cahir @ 7.30pm
Saturday 18th July
Senior Football Championship
Aherlow v JK Brackens in Dundrum @ 7.30pm
Arravale Rovers v Moyle Rovers in New Inn @ 7.30pm
Clonmel Commercials v Cahir in Ardfinnan @ 7.30pm
Intermediate Football Championship
Kiladangan v Drom & Inch in Borrisoleigh @ 7.00pm
Clonmel Og v Loughmore/Castleiney in Killenaule @ 7.30pm
Father Sheehys v Clonoulty/Rossmore in Bansha @ 7.30pm
Fethard v Golden-Kilfeacle in Boherlahan @ 7.30pm
Mullinahone v Grangemockler/Ballyneale in Cloneen @ 7.30pm
Sunday 19th July
Senior Football Championship
Moyne-Templetuohy v Ardfinnan in Cashel @ 1.00pm
Killenaule v Galtee Rovers in Golden @ 2.00pm
Kilsheelan/Kilcash v Upperchurch/Drombane in New Inn @ 4.30pm
Intermediate Football Championship
Rockwell Rovers v Clonmel Commercials in Monroe @ 1.00pm
Cashel King Cormacs v JK Brackens in Holycross @ 4.00pm
Borrisokane v Moyle Rovers in Templetuohy @ 7.00pm
Friday 24th July
Senior Hurling Championship – O Riain Cup
Templederry Kenyons v Silvermines in Kilcolman @ 7.00pm
Intermediate Hurling Championship
Ballybacon/Grange v Cappawhite in Tipperary Town @ 7.00pm
Knockavilla Kickhams v Galtee Rovers in Golden @ 7.00pm
Saturday 25th July
Senior Hurling Championship – Dan Breen Cup
Drom & Inch v Roscrea in Templemore @ 2.00pm
Moycarkey/Borris v Loughmore/Castleiney in Semple Stadium @ 3.00pm
Thurles Sarsfields v Kilruane MacDonaghs in Holycross @ 3.00pm
Kiladangan v JK Brackens in Semple Stadium @ 7.00pm
Senior Hurling Championship – O Riain Cup
Carrick Swans v Ballingarry in Clonmel Sportsfield @ 7.00pm
Newport v Clonakenny in Templederry @ 7.00pm
Sean Treacys v Mullinahone in Cashel @ 7.00pm
Intermediate Hurling Championship
Gortnahoe/Glengoole v Kilsheelan/Kilcash in Ballingarry @ 3.00pm
Shannon Rovers v Boherlahan-Dualla in Borrisoleigh @ 3.00pm
Borrisokane v Carrick Davins in Templetuohy @ 7.00pm
Moneygall v Golden-Kilfeacle at The Ragg @ 7.00pm
Moyle Rovers v Ballinahinch in Drombane @ 7.00pm
Sunday 26th July
Senior Hurling Championship – Dan Breen Cup
Burgess v Upperchurch/Drombane in Dolla @ 1.00pm
Toomevara v Borris-Ileigh in Nenagh @ 1.00pm
Eire Og Annacarty v Clonoulty/Rossmore in Semple Stadium @ 2.00pm
Nenagh Eire Og v Holycross/Ballycahill in Semple Stadium @ 7.00pm
Senior Hurling Championship – O Riain Cup
Cashel King Cormacs v Killenaule in Littleton @ 2.00pm
St Mary’s v Ballina in Cappawhite @ 3.00pm
Portroe v Kiladangan in Dolla @ 4.30pm
Lorrha v Thurles Sarsfields in Toomevara @ 5.00pm
Intermediate Hurling Championship
Drom & Inch v Moyne-Templetuohy in Templemore @ 7.00pm
All games in the first round will be single-header matches, with sixteen different venues in football and 19 in football, including the four games at Semple Stadium which will require fans to leave the ground and then return as per public health guidelines.
“We can’t really have double-headers as such as under the current guidelines it would mean people being at a venue more than two hours,” Kennedy said.
“We’ve have to spread them around because there is a fair job for clubs to prepare a venue for a game and then clean it after a game.
“Before we’d have been scheduling matches to allow people to get to as many as they could but with the pandemic we’ll nearly be looking at making matches simultaneous to prevent people from getting to too many matches.
“There is a certain level of personal responsibility required on everyone that if you attend a match that you distance yourself from other people as much as possible and with crowds of 200 and 500 people that is possible in most grounds that have senior hurling matches in reasonable weather. There would be an issue on a wet day if people are all gathered in a stand.”
The County Board now have to put a plan in place on how to get fans into and out of a venue safely, as well as how they can be admitted to each ground and they are looking at a ticketing system, both online and paper, to reduce the use of cash at the stiles
Kennedy added: “We’ll have a major PR job to do because club games usually aren’t ticket affairs and people usually decide that morning whether they are going to a game or not in the afternoon. If tickets are pre-sold there is a good element of contact tracing.”
The County Board are also in discussions with Waterford production company Nemeton to screen some club games online. However, they have only show games that don’t clash with live games shown by RTE (likely Saturday evenings) and TG4 (Sunday afternoons) as per the GAA’s media rights. However, the scheduling of Thurles Sarsfields v Kilruane MacDonaghs on a Saturday afternoon in Holycross and Toomevara v county and Munster champions Borris-Ileigh on Sunday lunchtime opens the possibility of both those games being screen on the opening weekend in hurling.
Round 2 of the football championships will take place on the weekend of August 1/2.
The hurling championships will then take centre stage for the following weekends, August 8/9 and 15/16 when rounds 2 and 3 will be played.
The weekend of August 22/23 will see round 3 of the football championships going ahead. The fixtures for both rounds will be confirmed after the round 1 games as a winner will play a winner and a loser will play a loser from round 1 in the round 2 games.
“We have tried to give everyone as many games as we could,” said Tipperary CCC chairman Joe Kennedy.
“We then had to try and fit it into the schedule with at the same time being fair to the county teams as well as they need a few weeks after club championship to get their head and bodies focused for their championship as well.”
He confirmed it was a difficult decision to remove quarter finals from the senior and intermediate football championships but there wasn’t too much push back to it from the clubs while the CCC also ruled against having no relegation as counties such as Clare and Waterford have done, saying, “It would have created a mess next year.”
The Hurling quarter-finals as well as the relegation semi-finals will then take place on the weekend of August 29/30.
To facilitate the possibility of a dual club reaching both hurling and football semi-finals, those games, for now, are scheduled for the weekends of September 5/6 and/or September 12/13.
The Senior Hurling, Séamus Ó Riain and Senior Football Relegation finals will take place on the weekend of September 12/13.
The County Senior Hurling, Séamus Ó Riain and Senior Football Finals will take place on the weekend of September 19/20. The Intermediate Hurling and Football Finals the following weekend, September 26/27.
The Junior Hurling & Football ‘A’ & ‘B’ Championships are being organised by the divisional boards. The divisional hurling finals are fixed for October 3/4, with only winners going forward to county semi-finals, thus quarter finals are removed from Junior ‘A’ hurling.
The Junior Football ‘A’ & ‘B’ County Finals will take place on the weekend of December 5/6. The divisional winners only going forward to county semi-finals.
The U21 and Minor Football County Finals will take place on the weekend of November 21/22.
The Minor Hurling County Finals will be played on the weekend of September 5/6.
As the U21 Football Championship has already commenced, this will have to reach its conclusion before any consideration can be made in relation to the U21 Hurling Championship. With that in mind any decision made in respect to that championship will be at the discretion of County CCC.
“There are 5 under 21’s on the senior hurling panel and 4 under 21’s on the senior football panel,” Kennedy confirmed as to the difficulty of arranging an under 21 club hurling championship.
“All the senior hurlers are on ‘A’ team so you could possibly look at playing an under 21 ‘B’ championship but that has to be worked out. It’s a worse case scenario but we’d like to get it played.