Football and hurling leagues set to throw in on same weekend in January

Teams are permitted to begin collective training on December 7.

Mon, 30 Sep, 2024 - 21:16

John Fogarty

The Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues are to commence on the same January weekend next year in what is looking like one of the busiest starts to a GAA inter-county season.

For the first time since 2020, the two competitions are expected to launch simultaneously on January 25 and 26.

For the past three seasons, the first round of football has taken place a week before that of the hurling competition. In 2021, the start of the league was delayed by the pandemic until May when the hurling league began a week earlier.

In 2025 there are six rounds in the new seven-team hurling divisions as opposed to five rounds last season, while the two-week gap between the Division 1A and 1B hurling finals and start of the provincial championships also has to be considered.

In hurling’s new Division 1A (Clare, Cork, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, Tipperary and Wexford), each team will have three home and away games with the bottom two by the end of the sixth and final round being relegated to Division 1B (Antrim, Carlow, Dublin, Laois, Offaly, Waterford and Westmeath) and replaced by the two in that group. The final will involve the top two counties after all divisional games have been played.

The football divisional finals are pencilled in for March 29 and 30, the same weekend as the Division 2, 3 and 4 hurling deciders. The penultimate round of the football league takes place on St Patrick’s Day weekend, March 16 and 17.

Officially permitted to return to collective training on December 7, counties will have six weeks to prepare for the beginning of the league and the new Football Review Committee experimental rules – no sessions are allowed from December 22 to 27.

The Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cup finals don’t yet have finalised dates but they are being considered for Wednesday, January 12 and Saturday, January 16 respectively.

As the decision was made to retain the current All-Ireland SFC format for another year, both codes’ senior championships are to run on a similar schedule as last season. Again, the Connacht and Munster finalists, who are due to play their provincial deciders on May 3 and 4, will have two weeks between their Round 1 and 2 Sam Maguire Cup group games while the last two in Leinster and Ulster will have just one.

The provincial football championships, the draws for which are to be made on Saturday week, are due to start on April 5 and 6, the same weekend as the Division 1A and 1B hurling finals.

The U20 All-Ireland football final will either take place on the weekend of May 17 and 18 or Wednesday, May 21. The hurling equivalent is slotted in for May 31 or June 1 but that could yet change.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed the Limerick SHC semi-finals later this month will not be staged in TUS Gaelic Grounds. Damage to a section of the pitch at a recent three-day music festival at the Ennis Road venue means the games will be played elsewhere.

Doon will meet Patrickswell or Monaleen in Kilmallock on October 13 (1pm), while Na Piarsaigh face Kilmallock or Ballybrown in Rathkeale’s Mick Neville Park later that afternoon (4pm). The final has been scheduled for TUS Gaelic Grounds on Sunday, October 26.

Elsewhere, Tyrone manager Malachy O’Rourke has added former defender Chris Lawn to his management team for next season. Lawn, an All-Ireland winner in 2005 and ’08, joins coach Ryan Porter, Leo McBride and Colm McCullagh.