22 COUNTY TEAMS will be playing close attention tomorrow morning as the opening qualifier draws take place for this year’s All-Ireland senior football and hurling championships.
The draw will be broadcast live on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland at 8.30am and also streamed live on the GAA website.
It will see the Round 1A and Round 1B football qualifier draws take place, along with the preliminary round in the hurling championship.
The hurling game will take place on 24 June and will see the winners of next Saturday’s Christy Ring Cup final between Carlow and Antrim, drawn to take on either Laois or Westmeath.
The game will be played at a neutral venue and whichever of Laois or Westmeath is not drawn, will then go into Round 1 of the hurling qualifiers with Tipperary, Limerick and Dublin already guaranteed to be at that stage.
In the football championship, the eight teams that will contest the Round 1A games on Saturday 17 June are already known.
Round 1A
Leinster: Wicklow, Longford, Louth, Laois.
Ulster: Derry, Antrim.
Munster: Waterford.
Connacht: Sligo.
There are ten teams in the frame for Round 1B with the Cavan-Monaghan and Offaly-Westmeath provincial quarter-finals this weekend set to reduce it to eight.
Those games will take place on Saturday 24 June.
Round 1B
Leinster: Wexford, Carlow, Offaly/Westmeath.
Ulster: Fermanagh, Armagh, Cavan/Monaghan.
Munster: Limerick.
Connacht: London.
In both draws, the first team drawn shall have home advantage with two exceptions:
Firstly, if two teams have already met in the provincial championship this year, the winner of the game will have home advantage if they are paired together. Potential repeat ties are Wexford v Carlow, Wicklow v Louth and Longford v Laois.
Secondly, if a county did not have home advantage in the first round in the 2016 qualifiers, it will have home advantage this time. If both teams drawn together played away in 2016, the first team drawn shall have home advantage.
The counties who were drawn away in 2016 were Longford, Louth, Armagh, Wickow, Fermanagh, London, Limerick and Waterford.
Confirmation of home venues, times and all dates for the fixtures will be confirmed following a meeting of the GAA’s CCCC later tomorrow.
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