Galway footballers will open a new €1.5 million training centre next month - complete with a pitch the exact size of Croke Park. Galway football board chairman Pat Egan said they wanted the pitch the same as Croke Park so that teams could prepare for playing there.
The state-of-the-art centre at Loughgeorge on the Galway-Tuam road will be the training base for all Galway football teams.
The two floodlit pitches have been used for training for the Galway teams for some years but now they have been upgraded and a hi-tech gym has been included in the new development.
"One of the pitches is the exact size of Croke Park. We did this so that players would know the exact dimensions, because everything is geared towards preparing teams for the highest stage," said Egan.
The dressingrooms are designed to cater for large squads with each player having his own compartment, with the Galway crest on each of them.
A large gym is the focal point of the building, complete with medical room. Other facilities include a washing room for playing gear, while the dining hall can cater for about 200 people. "This training facility is a huge boost to Galway football," added Egan.
Meanwhile, Galway, who brought an unsuccessful motion to Congress earlier this year calling for a ban on third level institutions in the All-Ireland club championship, are 60 minutes away from having a college in their county senior final.
NUIG, who won the Galway title three times backs in the 1930s, will take on Padraic Joyce's Killererin on Sunday as they bid to reach the final for the first time since 1973.
NUIG are coached by former Mayo senior midfielder Pat Fallon and have a host of intercounty players to call on including David Conway (Laois), Jeff Farrell and John Connellan (Westmeath), Fiachra Breathnach (Galway), Paul Broderick (Carlow) and Mark Ronaldson (Mayo).
Earlier this year a motion from the Athenry club banning college teams from the All-Ireland club championships was unanimously passed in Galway but was unsuccessful at the GAA Congress.
Favourites Caltra will meet Miltown in the second of the semi-finals at Tuam Stadium on Sunday.
Former All-Ireland champions Athenry and Portumna will meet in the Galway hurling semi-final on Sunday week. The pair, who have won seven of the last nine Galway titles between, were drawn on Tuesday night to play each other while Castlegar and Kinvara will meet in the other semi-final.
Kilkenny's Henry Shefflin began his recuperation from knee surgery yesterday. He returned home to Ballyhale on Tuesday night following the work to repair the damage to the cruciate ligament he ruptured during the All-Ireland hurling final against Limerick.
It is understood he'll be out of action for six months which will rule him out of next year's National League and means the Kilkenny captain will be in a race against time to be fit for the start of their All-Ireland title defence.
The Limerick and Tipperary county boards have hit the jackpot to the tune of €75,000 each following the three-game Munster senior hurling championship saga between the two teams this summer.
The GAA's Munster Council has decided to split €150,000 between the two counties after the epic trilogy enthralled hurling fans and swelled council coffers considerably. The Munster Council's Finance and Management Committee recommended the cash windfall for the respective county boards and this has been officially rubber-stamped by council top brass.
In addition, Cork, Kerry, Clare and Waterford's county boards will each receive €10,000, which equates to a total spend of €190,000 by the Munster Council.
After the second draw between Tipperary and Limerick, Tipp's manager Michael Babs Keating, Tipperary's manager at the time, called on the Munster Council to give both panels €50,000 each for a holiday next January. However, Munster Council officials stressed the monies payable to Limerick and Tipperary will be sent directly to the county boards, who will decide how the funds will be used.
Munster Council secretary Simon Moroney confirmed: "These allocations are arising from the second replay (at the Gaelic Grounds) specifically. We have rarely seen two replays, certainly not in my time, but if there was a replayed final, we would allocate a replay grant. However, this would certainly not be as significant as the figures we have given out here.
"This money represents a substantial proportion of the overall gate and it should also be considered in the context that the attendances in other games were not as buoyant as in previous years."
Moroney added a note of caution: "The additional number of games and the televising of games are very good but it comes at a price and we have to be vigilant. It's not so long ago you would expect a full house at a Munster football final but there were 31,000 in Killarney this year, 8,000 down on capacity."
