Offaly win battle to get U21 final against Cats postponed

THE Offaly County Board has succeeded in its bid to get tomorrow’s Leinster U21 hurling championship final against Kilkenny at O’Connor Park in Tullamore postponed.

The Leinster Council bowed to the Faithful County’s request at the eleventh hour, following complaints that the midweek game had been fixed in between two All-Ireland senior hurling qualifiers.

Eight of the U21 side played in last Saturday’s 10-point senior victory over Limerick, and are expected to be involved in Saturday evening’s clash with Waterford in Thurles.

Leinster GAA secretary Michael Delaney confirmed that the U21 final has now been re-fixed for Thursday, July 24.

However, Offaly chiefs are still fuming at Croke Park authorities over the timing and venues of the weekend’s senior football and hurling qualifiers.

The hurling game against Waterford is fixed for Thurles at 5pm and the football qualifier against Down in Tullamore two hours later.

Offaly county secretary Martin Boland said it was sad that supporters and officials would not be able to make it to both games as a result.

“Those working in O’Connor Park — the stewards, the officers of the County Board — won’t even be able to see the second half of the hurling on the television,” he explained.

“We’ll have to start getting things ready here for the football because the teams will be arriving at around six. With our minor footballers involved in the Leinster final in Croke Park, there was no question of playing the football (qualifier) on Sunday. But they could have played the game much earlier on the Saturday and played the hurling later in Thurles.”

He added: “They’re preaching to us to get our club fixtures in order, but they can’t do the simple things they have to do themselves.

“All of us are only voluntary officials, how do they expect us to deal with all this? Bi-location?

“We’d like to see both of those games, as I’m sure would a huge number of supporters here in Offaly.’’

He pointed out that Offaly proposed that the uUnder-21 final would be deferred, but that their request was not entertained.

Meanwhile, the Semple Stadium double-header will be all-ticket, with the Waterford/Offaly game followed by the meeting of Cork and Galway at 7pm.

With ticket prices costing €25 for the covered stand, €20 for the uncovered stand and €15 on the terraces, the timing of the games was decided in the interest of people travelling to the venue in the late afternoon, and also to tie in with the programme of games on television.

Both hurling qualifiers will be shown live on RTÉ, and will be preceded by the live telecast of the GAA All-Ireland football qualifier between Monaghan and Derry in Clones at 3pm on TV3.

In relation to the football qualifier games, ticket prices will be €20 and €15 respectively for stand and terrace admission.

Tickets for senior citizens and students with ID will be €10, while children under-16 will be admitted free when accompanied by an adult.

This arrangement will also apply in the case of the hurling games in Thurles.

The Louth/Tyrone game in Drogheda is also all-ticket, and the Croke Park press office have stressed that all patrons attending the game (including the ‘free’ juveniles) must have tickets.

The entry price for pensioners and students in Thurles will be €10, while children under -16 will be admitted free provided they are accompanied by an adult.

Tickets are available from usual GAA sources including the GAA ticket office on 01 8658657 and www.gaa.ie.