Croke Park officials announced details on Monday of measures to cope with the weather disruption at the weekend, which necessitated the re-scheduling of a number of hurling fixtures, including the pushing back of the league final, originally set for March 24th.
This is the outcome of a tightly-packed schedule, which was intended to play off the league quarter-finals, semi-finals and final in successive weekends from next Sunday.
The postponement of Cork-Tipperary, Wexford-Kilkenny and Waterford-Galway meant, however, that the required placings in Divisions 1A and 1B wouldn't be ready to complete the draw. The one quarter-final that did emerge, Laois-Limerick will go ahead next Saturday.
No final decision has yet been made on whether to fix the final for Saturday or Sunday at the end of the month, as the CCCC is keen to see what counties are involved in the league football finals scheduled for the same weekend. Should, say, Galway be involved in both, a clash would have to be avoided.
That could necessitate the holding of the hurling final on Saturday 30th despite it not being a popular day for hurling counties to play big matches.
The CCCC would be likely to point out that last league final was also scheduled for a Saturday, but eventually played on a later Sunday after weather disrupted the knockout stages.
Next year’s re-drawing of the hurling league will see the abolition of the quarter-final round.
Monday’s statement said that “the main aim of the CCCC when considering these rearrangements was to minimise disruption to the scheduling of club games in April and May.”
SATURDAY
Hurling Division One quarter-final
Laois v Limerick, O’Moore Park, Portlaoise 7pm
Sunday
Hurling League 1A round 5
Cork v Tipperary, Páirc Uí Rinn 2pm
Wexford v Kilkenny, Wexford Park 2pm
Hurling League 1B round 5
Waterford v Galway, Walsh Park 2pm
Hurling League 1B relegation play-off
Offaly v Carlow, O’Connor Park 2pm
ST PATRICK’S WEEKEND
Remaining Division One quarter-finals
WEEKEND 23RD/24TH MARCH
Division One semi-finals
WEEKEND 30TH/31ST MARCH
Division One final
