THE Games Administration Committee of the GAA, who will announce today the venues for the quarter-finals and play-offs of the National Football League, may opt for double headers at Croke Park on April 6th and 13th.
The quarter-final pairings present geographical and traffic problems which could lead to a change in plans.
In the quarter-finals, Down versus Kerry, Cork versus Louth, Derry versus Laois and Kildare meet either Offaly or Fermanagh.
In regard to the last tie, a series of matches in Division Four has to be played on March 16th: if Kilkenny beat Offaly and Fermanagh beat Waterford, the two must play-off for the last quarter-final place.
From both geographical and logistical points of view, Croke Park is the obvious venue for the quarter-finals. Two double headers on successive Sundays would also be attractive to supporters.
Other possible venues are Portlaoise and Navan, but three teams from the northern half of the country - Meath, Cavan and Tyrone - are also involved in a relegation play-off, so if the matches are all to be played on the same day, traffic from 11 different counties - Kerry, Cork, Down, Derry, Kildare, Offaly or Fermanagh, Louth and Laois, and the three mentioned, could be converging on venues within 100 miles of each other; it could be chaos.
A decision to have two double headers at Croke Park on consecutive Sundays might meet with some support, but then again some counties might object that club fixtures could be disrupted, or be forced to compete with attractive inter-county clashes elsewhere.
