All-Ireland replay puts squeeze on Kerry county championship plans

The All-Ireland final requiring a replay has meant the entire Kerry senior football championship will be squeezed into a seven-week period, but county board chairman Tim Murphy is confident they will have a representative in time for the Munster club semi-final on November 17.

Win or lose at Croke Park this Saturday, Kerry players will line out with their clubs the weekend after next. And for the two teams who go all the way to the county final, there is the strong possibility they’ll play six games across eight weekends.

Murphy said the All-Ireland final stalemate had narrowed the window in which to run off their county championship, but added that clubs were informed at the beginning of the year of such a condensed programme of games in the event of Kerry being involved in a drawn All-Ireland final.

It’s winner-on-the-day for rounds one and two (September 21/22 and 28/29) and while extra-time will again be played should any of the round three fixtures finish level on the weekend of October 5/6, there is room in the schedule for round three replays as the quarter-finals are not pencilled in until October 19/20.

The semi-finals are fixed for the following weekend (Oct 26/27), with a two-week gap to the final on November 10. The executive’s decision to afford both semi-final winners a fortnight’s reprieve before the final, instead of playing the Kerry SFC decider on November 3, means there is no room for a replay in the event of a draw as the county champions are in Munster action on November 17.

“The fixtures calendar just doesn’t physically allow anything else other than that to be done, to be quite honest. We’ve looked at it up and down before deciding on these dates,” said Kerry County Board chairman Tim Murphy.

Murphy said consideration was given to affording Kerry players two weeks off before throwing in the county senior championship, but it was agreed that eight days was sufficient.

For clubs and divisional teams who lose rounds one and two, their county championship will have lasted all of eight days.

“This was flagged in the fixtures calendar at the beginning of the year, in the event of Kerry reaching the All- Ireland final and that game finishing level. I know it is not a perfect solution, but it is as perfect as we can get it, given the circumstances.

“Broadly, clubs and districts boards welcome that the senior championship is played off in a block at this time of year. With the junior and intermediate championships run off in April and May, it means there is no crossing over of club and divisional activity.”

Elsewhere, the Galway County Board has fixed six senior hurling championship matches for the same time as the county’s All-Ireland ladies football final clash with Dublin. Galway and Dublin throw-in at 4pm in Croke Park on Sunday, the same start time as three of the aforementioned senior club fixtures. The remaining three Galway SHC games commence at 5.30pm.