Gaelic Games - National Football League: The long-running controversy surrounding the Kildare-Sligo fixture in the National Football League will finally be concluded in just over a week's time.
The GAA's Games Administration Committee (GAC) have decided the game will be replayed on Easter Sunday, primarily because Down had been innocently caught up in the wrangling.
Although Kildare are already relegated from Division One B, Sligo avoided dropping with them after ending the league last Sunday with one more point than Down. Two of those points, however, were awarded on a technicality, the result of Kildare's now well-documented breach of the obscure Rule 109 (which governs team sheets) when beating Sligo at Markievicz Park on February 9th.
But in fixing the replay the GAC have given Down the chance for survival - which all three counties involved agree that they deserve - even if the chance is out of the Down's own hands. Last Sunday they pulled off a surprise win over Meath, leaving them with five points and enough to survive in division one had Sligo not been awarded two points in the committee room.
So as things stand Sligo need to beat or at least draw with Kildare to survive. The game will again be played at Markievicz Park, the scene of Kildare's one-point win on the playing field, and the game which also started the subsequent series of appeals and deferments over the last nine weeks.
Last week the GAC decided to defer any decision on the replay until after the last round of games on the basis that it may not be needed, and that the points wouldn't matter to Kildare either way. While this is now the case from Kildare's point of view, Down ended up being the only team that would suffer if the replay didn't go ahead. Clearly the GAC felt it unfair to ignore their situation.
On paper the replay may appear largely trivial in that only Sligo have anything to play for. Yet the Kildare County Board secretary Richie Whelan has made it clear that the county will be making every effort to win the game.
And there is another element to the occasion. The rivalry between Kildare and Sligo - and especially the league rivalry - has reached a crescendo and it's no secret that the feeling in Kildare right now is that if they are going down to the lower division then who better to drag down with them than Sligo.
So while Sligo may have the more obvious motivation, Kildare won't be entirely short of incentive. Another reason the controversy has dragged on so long is that Kildare always felt entitled to the two points won on the field, and the replay is the chance to prove their case.
If the replay ends in a draw, both Sligo and Down would end up with five points but as things stand Sligo have a marginally better points difference (-6 to Down's -8) and will survive if they maintain that.
Coincidentally, the rule itself is up for review at this weekend's Congress in Belfast, and under the amendment allows for a less strict penalty depending on the circumstances.
The GAC have also finalised the venues for the National Football League Division One semi-finals, with both games being played, as expected, as a double-header in Croke Park on Easter Sunday, April 20th. Fermanagh will play Tyrone at 2.0, followed by Armagh against Laois at 3.40. Both games will be shown live on TG4
The Division Two semi-finals have also been set for the weekend after next but at two different venues and on two different days. Westmeath play Longford in Hyde Park, Roscommon on the Sunday with a 3.15 throw-in, while Limerick and Wexford will meet in Portlaoise on Easter Monday at 3.30.
In all four games extra-time will be played if necessary. The two league finals, division one and two, will be played a fortnight later, May 4th, at Croke Park.
The GAC have also decided to bring forward the National Hurling League game between Laois and Limerick to Saturday, April 19th - the second game in phase two of division one.
In related fixture news, the Leinster Council has also made one alteration to their forthcoming provincial championship. As a result of the involvement of both Laois and Wexford in the play-off stages of the league it has been decided to defer the Leinster championship first round game between these two counties from Sunday May 4th to Sunday May 11th.
This means that there are three Leinster football matches scheduled for the same day (Laois-Wexford, Westmeath-Carlow and Louth-Wicklow) and it was also decided to play the three games in Croke Park on that May 11th date. Times and order of games will be decided by the Leinster GAC at a later date.
