Saturday date in June for Munster Final

IN an unprecedented move, the 2018 Munster Senior Football Championship Final will be played on a Saturday.

The move from the traditional early July Sunday afternoon Munster Football Final date to a Saturday evening in June is the big take away from the GAA’s master fixture calendar unveiled on Tuesday.

The new structure of the football and hurling championships has thrown up several changes to the schedule, and the moving of the Munster Football Final to a Saturday could cause some consternation for GAA fans in Kerry and elsewhere.

However, Kerry GAA chairman Tim Murphy has welcomed the news.

“I’m really looking forward to it. It’s a really novel move and I’d broadly welcome it,” My Murphy told The Kerryman. “We’ve had Munster Final replays on Saturday, and we’ve had some really excellent Saturday night games in the League.”

By way of explanation for the move, the GAA said: “The final round of the Munster Hurling Championship was scheduled for the day on which we had initially planned to play the Munster Football Final. Rather than move the Munster Hurling games to a Saturday, it was felt that it was a good time to experiment with a provincial final on a Saturday night. It again offers a good promotional and marketing opportunity.

“It will be reviewed next year but this is envisioned as being part of a three-year experimental rota with Leinster and Ulster, whereby if required one of those provinces would also look at playing a provincial football final on a Saturday night in the coming years.”