In a major departure for the women's game, this Saturday's All-Ireland semi-final replay will be played on the same double bill as the women's football semi-final between All-Ireland champions Mayo and first-time Ulster champions Tyrone.

This is the first time that the men's and women's games have been presented together at All-Ireland level. Women's football is the country's fastest-growing sport and has been attracting increasing crowds to its big matches.

In recent years, the final has been televised and 12 months ago, the semi-finals were also covered.

It is this arrangement with RTE - albeit an informal one - which led to this weekend's double bill. Given that RTE was unexpectedly covering the Armagh-Kerry semi-final, the women's semi-finals, scheduled for Parnell Park, were not going to be broadcast.

But as there had been no curtainraiser decided on for the men's match, the women's association made the request to Croke Park.

"I think it is further recognition for the great role being played by women in Gaelic games," said GAA president Sean McCague, a committed supporter of the concept of "alliance" - the coming together of the women's sports under the GAA umbrella. "It is a great opportunity to showcase the increasingly popular women's game."

There will, however, be some ticketing problems because, as the request was made within the last 48 hours, all tickets have been distributed, largely to the competing counties in the men's replay.

A GAA spokesperson said any returns would be diverted to the women's association. The other semi-final between Waterford and Meath will be played at Parnell Park on Saturday week.

Meanwhile, Derry's appeal against the rejection of their objection to last Sunday week's All-Ireland minor football defeat by Cork will be heard by the GAA's Management Committee tomorrow night.

The case is based on the two yellow cards shown to Cork centrefielder Kieran Murphy who nonetheless remained on the field for the remaining six minutes.

Another fixture released by Croke Park yesterday was the replay of Sunday's drawn minor semi-final between Mayo and Westmeath. It is to be played on Saturday week in Carrick-on-Shannon.