All 16 teams that by Sunday evening will make up the draw for the first round of the All-Ireland football qualifiers face an early start on Monday morning to discover where exactly their back-door route will take them.
In an effort to raise the profile of the draw the GAA have agreed that RTÉ radio will broadcast it live on Morning Ireland, as part of the 8.30am sports bulletin, with confirmation of the venues announced later in the day.
“The main purpose here is to promote the football draw a little better,” said GAA communications manager Alan Milton.
“What we’ve found in the past is that the draw has been a little lost on a Sunday evening, as people and teams are travelling homes from games or whatever else.”
All first-round games are set for Saturday, June 30th – and will feature the 16 counties that failed to reach their provincial semi-finals.
This year that means Antrim, Cavan, Fermanagh, London, Roscommon, Tipperary, Waterford, Westmeath, Louth, Longford, Wicklow and Laois – who will be joined by the loser of this weekend’s three football quarter-finals, in two provinces: the meeting of Derry and Donegal in Ulster, and the losers of Kildare against Offaly and the Meath-Carlow replay in Leinster.
