Tipperary and Cork to meet again

GAELIC GAMES:ALL-IRELAND senior hurling champions Tipperary will have a new manager for the start of their title defence next year, but their first championship opponents will be very familiar.

The draws for the 2011 GAA championships, conducted last night in Croke Park ordained that for the eighth year running – and for the fourth successive year in Munster – Tipp will play oldest rivals Cork in the championship.

Last May’s encounter in Páirc Uí Chaoimh ended in a shock, 10-point win for Cork, but Tipp recovered to win the All-Ireland through the qualifiers.

New Limerick manager Donal O’Grady’s first Munster game will be with the county who defeated him on his last appearance in the province, with Cork six years ago. The counties last met in 2008 and Waterford won after a replay.

Kilkenny will begin their quest for a seventh successive Leinster title in the semi-finals against Wexford, Laois or Antrim. The draw leaves open the possibility of a reprise of last year’s provincial final between the champions and Galway, who first must overcome Carlow or Westmeath and then Dublin or Offaly.

In football, All-Ireland champions Cork and their predecessors Kerry have been kept apart in the draw, leaving them on course for a first provincial final in three years.

In Ulster, there is a re-engagement of this year’s provincial finalists with champions Tyrone drawn out of the bowl with Monaghan, who will be under the new management of Eamonn McEneaney.

The most eye-catching fixture sees All-Ireland finalists Down paired with neighbours Armagh, a match that will bring together respectively managers James McCartan and Paddy O’Rourke, who played on the Down team which won the All-Ireland 20 years previously.

In Leinster, holders Meath will have to get past Kildare or Wicklow, followed by Dublin, whom they deposed in the semi-finals this year. In fact, the draw sees the counties who have accounted for 26 of the last 28 championships all in the same half. Louth, controversially denied a first title in 53 years last July, are on the other side of the draw.

Finally in Connacht, this year’s surprise champions Roscommon find themselves on the opposite side of the draw to Mayo and Galway, who are likely to meet in the semi-finals, but on course to face Sligo in the semi-finals in what would be a re-match of the 2010 provincial final.

The provincial councils will in the weeks ahead draw up the fixtures schedule for 2011.