Offaly have disputed a claim by the GAA that Croke Park could have been made available this weekend for the Leinster semi-final replay between Meath and

Kildare. The GAA statement was made earlier in the week to emphasise that it was out of consideration for the counties involved rather than the lack of a venue that the replay has been postponed until August 3rd, the date originally scheduled for the provincial final.

Offaly qualified for the final a month ago, and feelings in the county have been running high over the further delay brought about by Croke Park's hosting of an American football match this Sunday.

In a press statement, Offaly's county board made eight points about the postponement of the Leinster final to August 16th, a Saturday.

1) The decision to postpone was taken immediately after the drawn semi-final match without Offaly being consulted.

2) On hearing the decision, Offaly contacted officers of the Leinster Council to express dismay at this lack of consultation and to highlight the consequences for the team, supporters and the county's domestic fixtures.

3) Last Monday, the Offaly county board was invited to send representatives to a special meeting of the Leinster Council's executive to discuss the matter.

4) At this meeting the Offaly representatives were told that Croke Park was unavailable on the coming weekend because an American football match was being held there on the Sunday and that the ground would be unavailable after 2.0 p.m.

on the Saturday. In fact the goal posts had already been removed as part of the preparations.

5) Having accepted that there was a problem, the Offaly delegation made two other suggestions: a) that the Leinster final be played in Croke Park on Sunday,

August 10th, and the All-Ireland hurling semi-final be transferred to Thurles or b) that the Leinster football final be played in Thurles on Sunday, August 10th.

6) Both suggestions were turned down and it was announced that the Leinster final would be played on Saturday, August 16th, no later than 3.30 p.m..

7) The date was reluctantly accepted, but representations were made by Offaly concerning the starting time which was seen as being inconvenient for many supporters. The following day, the Leinster executive agreed to start the match at 5 p.m..

8) Offaly thank the Leinster executive for the meeting for been given a very fair hearing.

Offaly PRO Pat Teehan explained the representations. "The team management is disappointed with the long break. If Offaly were an experienced team, I'd say

'great, a long lay-off will do them good' but we've a young team who were on a roll and could lose momentum over such a long break.

"You also have to remember that parts of Offaly like Shannonbridge and

Ferbane are a good distance from Dublin. Saturday matches are hard on supporters who have to work that day and starting a match at 3.30 would mean having to take off more than a half day. There's a lot of shops and small businesses to consider and we were under a lot of pressure from supporters to do something.

But we were happy enough to bring back the match to 5.00."

It has been confirmed by RTE that both football championship matches on

Sunday week will be televised. The replayed Leinster semi-final between Meath and Kildare will, as a result, start at 2.30 and the Connacht final between Mayo and Sligo at 4.15.

Meanwhile, the Munster Council of the GAA has announced that it has made a final decision to locate its new headquaters in Limerick. Peter McGrath was last night reappointed as manager of the Down senior football team. He was first appointed in 1989 and is the second longest serving manager of a county football team - behind Meath's Sean Boylan.McGrath was in charge of Down for their two

All Ireland wins this decade, in 1991 and 1994.