Champions hit road as training-camp sanctions are avoided

ALL-IRELAND champions Dublin and Limerick will both be on the road for their first league games next January.

But the GAA appear to have avoided the issue of sanctioning teams which, it is alleged, went on either overseas or Irish-based training camps outside the period set aside for such activity.

At a special Congress last September, which legislated to create more room for club activity, one of the motions passed was to take home advantage for one game in the following year’s league for any county found to have breached the ban on training camps once the league was completed and outside the 10-day window prior to a championship match. The GAA wrote to a number of counties earlier this year asking them to account for what trips were taken during the ‘club window’ in April and in the lead-up to the championship.

It was thought that up to 10 counties would face sanction. But the provisional league fixtures, released to counties yesterday, don’t appear to have followed through on that.

Armagh, one of the counties written to after it emerged that they were in Portugal for four days in April, have four home league games in Division 2 (Clare, Tipperary, Fermanagh and Cork), having had three last year.

The Wexford hurlers, who were also in Portugal in April, a trip Lee Chin subsequently said was designed to “go off together and have a bit of fun in each other’s company” also have three home games out of five in Division 1A, including a visit on the opening day by newly-crowned All-Ireland hurling champions Limerick.

Had there been a sanction applied, both the Armagh footballers and Wexford hurlers would only have had three and two home games each.

The Dublin footballers are away to Monaghan on Sunday, January 27, one of four away games.

Because they had four home games last year, it generally follows that they have three this year.

Dublin travelled to France in early May to visit the Battle of the Somme memorial in northern France which, Jim Gavin said on Monday after their latest All-Ireland final win, was about paying respects to the Irish who fought in World War I.

Dublin will have Galway at home in their first Allianz Division 1 game on Saturday, February 2 and will follow up with Kerry (away), Mayo (home), Roscommon (away) and Tyrone (home) before concluding their group phase in Cavan on Sunday, March 24.

After Wexford away, Limerick have Tipperary in the Gaelic Grounds for their first home match since their triumph last month on Saturday, February 2.

For their third match they’ll be in Kilkenny on Sunday, February 17 and they will finish up with a home game against Cork and an away game against Clare.

The leagues will follow the same schedules as last year which were so badly interrupted by adverse weather. It is anticipated that the hurling league final will be played on Saturday, March 24 ,the original date earlier this year before the weather sent the schedule off course.

The fixtures are not finalised and have been distributed as part of a consultation process. But changes are generally minimal.

As St Patrick’s Day falls on a Sunday in 2019, all football fixtures have been fixed for Saturday, March 16 but that is open to change if counties, by agreement, wish to play on Sunday or even Bank Holiday Monday.