Tipp call for dual code Semple double-header

TIPPERARY have applied to the Munster Council for a championship double-header at Semple Stadium next May.

Premier County chiefs are anxious to boost the attendance figures for the Munster SFC clash against Kerry in Thurles on May 27 and have requested that the game be held as part of a double-header with the senior hurling showdown against Limerick.

The football tie, which is currently pencilled in for May 20, would then serve as the curtain raiser before the provincial hurling quarter-final showdown with John Allen’s Shannonsiders.

Tipperary have been drawn against Kerry in the Munster senior football championship for a third successive year and following defeats in 2010 and 2011, a low attendance is feared for a standalone fixture against the Kingdom.

Staging the football as part of a double header, however, would generate more interest in the clash, with patrons arriving for the hurling providing a potential boost for the footballers.

Tipp chiefs have already pencilled in a hurling-football double header for March 11 next in the Allianz Leagues, with the footballers playing Cavan in Division 3 before Tipp’s big Division 1 hurling clash with Galway.

Tipp top brass are anxious to boost football attendances, with no more than a few hundred spectators generally attending National League fixtures.

Tipperary county board secretary Tim Floyd revealed: “We await a response from Munster Council to our request for the Tipp v Kerry SF championship game to be played as a double bill with the Tipp v Limerick Munster SH championship quarter-final in Thurles on Sunday May 27.

“If we could at least double the Tipp support at home games, especially after the football lift given by the county minors (All-Ireland success), we should aim to outnumber opposition supporters in 2012 when far away counties like Antrim come to visit us in our first home game on February 12.”