Football, hurling draws set for Sunday

THE DRAWS for the Bank of Ireland football and Guinness hurling provincial championships for 2005 will be televised on RTÉ 2 on Sunday at 7.30pm.

The football championship draws will feature all four provinces. In the Connacht championship, there will be three preliminary games. Galway have been pre-drawn to play New York and Roscommon will play London in the preliminary rounds.

Two of the remaining three teams - Leitrim, Sligo and Mayo - will be drawn to play against each other in the third preliminary game with the remaining team receiving a bye to the provincial semi-finals. There will be an open draw to decide the pairings for the semi-finals.

All six counties will participate in the Munster football championship.

In an open draw format, two teams will receive a bye to the semi-finals and the remaining four will be drawn against each other in two first round games, with the winners advancing to the semi- finals to face the teams who received a bye.

With nine counties taking part in the Ulster championship, two teams will play in a preliminary round tie to leave eight teams involved at the quarter-final stages.

Again, an open draw format will provide four quarter-final ties, leading to two semi-finals and ultimately the final.

Eleven teams will participate in the 2005 Leinster football championship (Kilkenny will not be involved).

Last year’s semi-finalists - Laois, Westmeath, Wexford and Meath - will receive a bye to the quarter-finals.

The remaining seven teams will be drawn to play in three first round ties with one of these also receiving a direct bye to the quarter-finals.

At the quarter-final stage, each of the four seeded teams mentioned will be drawn to play against one of the three first round winners or the team who received the bye to the quarter-finals.

The draws for the Guinness Leinster and Munster SHC will also take place on Sunday night.

There is an open draw format in both provinces. In Leinster, five teams (Wexford, Offaly, Dublin, Kilkenny and Laois) will be involved.

Two of these teams will face each other in a quarter-final with the winners advancing to the semi-finals to joined the three remaining teams.

The Munster championship will also feature five teams (Cork, Waterford, Tipperary, Limerick and Clare) and like Leinster, two of these teams will play in a quarter-final with the winners advancing to the semi-finals to be joined by the three remaining teams.

The Ulster SHC is pre-determined. This year, Down will play London in Casement Park in a quarter-final game, with the winners advancing to meet Derry in the semi-finals.

The second semi-final will be between Antrim and New York in Gaelic Park, New York.