Cats and Tipp renew great rivalry in second league phase

NATIONAL League and All-Ireland champions Kilkenny, will face Tipperary in their first outing of the second phase of the NHL, GAC Chairman Padraig Duffy yesterday confirmed.

In that first round, the team with the most points in Division 1A will play the team with the most points in Division 1B and the process is repeated for the second and third placed teams.

Venues and times will be finalised for these fixtures at tonight’s GAC meeting in Croke Park. The final will be played on Monday, May 5.

“The GAC would hope to be able to give counties at least two home games thus ensuring they would have played four at home over the entire league campaign, but it may not be possible”, said Duffy.

It will be a busy night for Mr. Duffy and his committee who are coming to the end of their three year term. They will have to decide whether or not to award Kildare a replay following the awarding of the points to Sligo in a recent NFL game.

“The management committee had a letter before them at the weekend from Kildare and one from Sligo offering a re-fixture”, said Mr. Duffy.

The committee agreed with the original decision of the GAC stating that it was the only option open to them given the result of the game.

“However they agreed to send it back to the GAC adding that if they wished to order a re-fixture that was their prerogative. Should the GAC agree to a re-fixture, it could have a big bearing, depending on results from next Sunday’s games, on who stays up and who is relegated in that particular division”.

Mr. Duffy also confirmed that Ken McGrath (Waterford) and Diarmuid Cloonan (Galway) had sought and have been granted personal hearings which will be heard tonight by the GAC. Both players received straight red cards during the course of a recent NHL game between the counties, and anything longer than a month could rule them out of the championship.

Meanwhile Galway footballer Michael Meehan has made history by winning the Connacht G.A.A. Writers' Personality of the Month for a second time.

Meehan, a member of the Caltra club, was the inaugural winner when the scheme was introduced last summer, in association with the TF Royal Hotel and Theatre, Castlebar.

The 18-year-old Financial Mathematics student at NUI, Galway receives his second award for the month of February, both for his key role in the impressive march of his university to outright Sigerson Cup victory and for performances with the Galway senior team in the Allianz NFL