THE ADVENTURE BEGINS!

Championship draws a welcome development

THE wheels are now fully in motion for the approaching Wicklow GAA club championships that get underway on July 17 with two Friday evening games in Aughrim.

All club championships apart from the Junior ‘C’ were arranged with a new format being put in place for the Senior, Intermediate and Junior ‘A’ football championships that sees the draw seeded with the four semi-finalists from last season kept apart from the remaining eight teams.

There will be no relegation in 2020 due to the possibility of some players electing not to play due to health concerns over Covid-19 but there will be a double relegation in 2021.

There were some very interesting clashes emerging from the draws for the first rounds. There will be an intriguing battle between Dunlavin and Baltinglass with Gavin Wynne’s side hoping to build on their IFC success in 2019 while Baltinglass will look to rise once again to be the force they were as recently as 2016 when they won the Miley Cup under Paul Garrigan.

Alan Costello will send his Tinahely warriors out to face Kiltegan in their opener in Aughrim, one of the two games on the Friday night. The second game takes place in Baltinglass and sees Annacurra take on Mickey Daly’s Donard-the Glen.

Perhaps the tie of the first round sees Harry Murphy’s Rathnew go head to head with Ger Brennan’s Bray Emmets in what would be the battle of the weekend as the Village seek to get back on track after a relatively quiet season in 2019 by their own standards while the Bray men will want to get off to the best possible start given the demands that will be placed on them due to their defence of the Senior hurling championship.

Wicklow GAA delegates had two options to choose from in terms of the Senior hurling championship and they opted for the open draw as opposed to the seeded version.

Interestingly, the draw worked out with the four powerhouses being separated into the two groups with Bray and Glenealy on one side and Carnew Emmets and St. Pat’s on the other. Top two teams from each group will meet in the semi-finals.

This year’s Intermediate hurling championship is made up of five teams after Kiltegan dropped out due to the demands of the current championship season and St. Patrick’s were successful in their application to return to Junior ranks for 2020.

Details on all the draws can be found inside.