Armagh and Galway not allowed to play their quarter final in Croke Park

[Coddler]

As far as I can remember Croke Park was allocated to Westlife and Celine sufferinlambofjaysis Dion for the June Bank holiday weekend. This has contibuted significantly to the current fixture pile up. The GAA need a kick up the hole for their greed lack of foresight on this.

[The Voice Of Reason]

The Dublin match should be a stand-alone on the 9th August. Dublin regularly have filled up Croke Park, and going by the last 3/4 years they have always sold it out from the provincial final onwards. To have Dublin as part of a double-header is unfair, and just plain stupid.

The hurling semi-final is for the 10th August, and the only other match along with that should be the Cork footballers quarter-final (at a push). Cork v Kilkenny is a massive hurling game and will probably attract 60k+, at least.

The Armagh and Galway quarter-finalists should then be given the option of 1) a double header in Croke Park on the 16th, or 2) a "home" quarter final on the 9th (probably the GAA's preferred option, should Dublin draw).

It was stated long ago that the quarter-finals would not be guaranteed to be in Croke Park. So I don't see it as a sin that Galway and Armagh don't have their games there. Sure if there was room in the schedule, they should have their games in Croke Park. However the Dubs, whether people like it or not, take priority ... and probably rightly so in my opinion.

[orangeman]

The Dublin match should be a stand-alone on the 9th August. Dublin regularly have filled up Croke Park, and going by the last 3/4 years they have always sold it out from the provincial final onwards. To have Dublin as part of a double-header is unfair, and just plain stupid.

The hurling semi-final is for the 10th August, and the only other match along with that should be the Cork footballers quarter-final (at a push). Cork v Kilkenny is a massive hurling game and will probably attract 60k+, at least.
The Armagh and Galway quarter-finalists should then be given the option of 1) a double header in Croke Park on the 16th, or 2) a "home" quarter final on the 9th (probably the GAA's preferred option, should Dublin draw).

It was stated long ago that the quarter-finals would not be guaranteed to be in Croke Park. So I don't see it as a sin that Galway and Armagh don't have their games there. Sure if there was room in the schedule, they should have their games in Croke Park. However the Dubs, whether people like it or not, take priority ... and probably rightly so in my opinion.

Can't see it honestly - it would get it tight to fill Thurles - Cork won't travel in numbers to Croker for this - but they'd go to Thurles no bother.

[The Voice Of Reason]

Now I'm taking these figures from memory, but the Cork v Waterford quarter-final last year had 74k spectators, and the replay had around 59k spectators ... the '06 semi-final v Waterford was 70k+ ... the '05 semi v Clare was 65k+ ... and I can't remember further back

The Cork hurling supporters do come out in big stages at this time of the championship. Plus given the nature of their last 2 wins, I think they'll take a massive support to Croke Park next Sunday. The Kilkenny fans will also be really up for this one, as I think it's the first time ever that Kilkenny and Cork have actually played each other in championship outside an All-Ireland final.

[Hound]

I wonder will views change when the draw is made?
If Galway draw Tyrone, will they really still prefer to play in Croke Park rather than say Sligo or Roscommon?

[twotwocharlie]

armagh v tyrone
dublin v kildare/fermanagh
cork v wexford
galway v kerry/monaghan

[armaghniac]

cork v wexford

It would be very odd for Wexford people to be involved in a football game before the hurling semi-final. One wonders who there would cheer for in Cork v Kilkenny!!

[The Voice Of Reason]

Source = RTÉ

All-Ireland SFC quarter-final draw:

Saturday, 9 August

Armagh -v- Wexford, 2.00pm

Galway -v- Kerry, 4.00pm

Sunday, 10 August

Cork -v- Kildare, 2.00pm

Saturday, 16 August

Dublin -v- Tyrone, 4.00pm

Everyone except the Dublin trainers will be happy with this I guess ... as a neutral I'd imagine it should be handy to get tickets for Saturday 9th, and reasonably ok for Sunday 10th and Saturday 16th ... I hope!