THE FIRST OF the qualifier draws for the 2018 All-Ireland senior football championship will take place tomorrow morning, with the weekend’s action determining the final six teams in the pot.
Ten of the counties that will be competing at this stage of the qualifiers were known before this weekend, and those counties — including Mayo and Tyrone — are joined in the draw by Kildare, Wicklow, Meath and Derry, all of whom lost today, as well as Westmeath and Antrim.
There were two stunning upsets in Sunday’s Leinster quarter-finals, with Carlow defeating Kildare in Tullamore to book their place in the last four, while Longford produced an outstanding second-half display to consign Meath to the qualifiers.
In Portlaoise, Dublin got their campaign underway in emphatic fashion by scoring four first-half goals against Wicklow while Donegal proved too strong for Derry in the Ulster championship.
Here is the provincial breakdown of the 16 teams involved:
- Connacht – Mayo and London.
- Leinster – Wexford, Louth, Offaly, Westmeath, Kildare, Wicklow, Meath.
- Munster – Limerick and Waterford.
- Ulster – Cavan, Tyrone, Armagh, Derry, Antrim.
A key difference this season in the qualifiers is the removal of the A and B sections, thus all 16 counties can be drawn against each other with an open draw determining the eight pairings.
The draw will take place on Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1 with the eight games to take place on Saturday 9 June.
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