The GAA have announced details of some key championship dates for 2008, including the provincial finals, the play-offs, and the qualifiers in football as well as hurling. There are only a few minor adjustments from recent years, mainly due to the revised hurling championship structure.

The new hurling qualifier format gets under way on June 28th, when Antrim will have home advantage against Galway. Phases two, three and four take place over the first three Saturdays in July - the 5th, 12th and 19th - and decide the two All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals.

This new format also has the winners of the Leinster and Munster hurling championship progressing straight to the All-Ireland semi-finals, to be played on August 10th and 17th. It means there will be only two All-Ireland quarter-finals, to be played on July 27th, while the All-Ireland final will once again take place on the first Sunday in September - which next year falls on the 7th.

In football, the new qualifier format introduced this year continues, which means the eight counties that end up in Division Four of the National League next season don't get the second chance - unless they make their provincial finals.

The qualifiers won't get under way until July 19th, when 16 teams go into an open draw for the eight round one games. The final round of the qualifiers will take place on the bank holiday weekend of August 2nd-4th.

The All-Ireland quarter-finals are set for the weekend of August 9th and 10th, with the semi-finals taking place later that month and drawn as follows: Connacht against Munster on August 24th; Leinster against Ulster on August 31st. This is based on the provincial champions getting that far, otherwise the pairing is based on the team that beats them.

Again the All-Ireland football final takes place on the third Sunday in September, the 21st.

The provincial final dates for football and hurling have also been announced, though the dates and venues for the earlier rounds are still being finalised and won't be known until early next month.

The first provincial final to be decided will be the Munster football final, set for June 29th. This is followed by the Leinster hurling final, set for July 6th. The Munster hurling final and the Connacht football final will be played on July 13th.

Finally, the Leinster and Ulster football finals will be played on July 20th - which rules out the option of Croke Park being used for the Ulster final.

Along with the National League fixtures in football and hurling, published yesterday, key championship dates for 2008 include the All-Ireland under-21 football final, set for Saturday, May 3rd, with the semi-finals - Ulster against Leinster and Munster against Connacht - set for April 4th. The All-Ireland under-21 hurling final is for September 14th.

The secondary football and hurling competition finals - the Christy Ring and Nicky Rackard Cups in hurling and the Tommy Murphy Cup in football - have been fixed for the bank holiday weekend of August 2nd-4th.

As usual, the All-Ireland club football and hurling finals will take place on St Patrick's Day, March 17th, which next year falls on a Monday.

The All-Ireland semi-finals in football and hurling are down for the weekend of February 23rd and 24th, and the intermediate and junior club finals will be played on February 16th.

No provisional dates have been set for the International Rules series with Australia. With the series suspended because of the disciplinary problems of last year, it remains to be seen if current talks between the GAA and the AFL are productive enough for the series to be resumed for 2008. If they are, Australia are due to be the hosts.