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This year the National League gets underway before the end of January as part of the new look GAA Season. It’s a shock to the system. The earlier start and the shocking weather has the diehard league fan reaching for the O’Neills waterproof gear and County bobble hats to fend of the seeping cold and sweeping sleet and rain.
As ever Saturday night lights are part of the programme. With floodlit games now an integral part of the weekly schedule and part of the Eir Sport Saturday night offering its hard to believe that the first floodlit match in Croke Park was only 11 years ago on February 3 2007 when 81,678 fans witnessed Tyrone GAA defeat Dublin 0-11 to 0-10. With counties varying their approach to the preseason competitions, the real business gets underway this weekend.
With the weather the great unknown the new schedule doesn’t offer much wriggle room if a game falls victim to the rain and snow. Already in Ulster and Leinster the preseason cup finals have slipped into on of the only free weekends.
First up on Saturday’s League programme are London GAA and Carlow with Turlough O’Brien making the trip to Ruislip invigorated by a positive summer campaign. At home Clare and Cavan meet in a Division 2 tie.
Proceedings promise to get more heated as the evening progresses. One of the ties of the day is Cork hurlers’ tussle with Kilkenny in Pairc Ui Chaoimh’s first serious intercounty fixture.
After experimenting preseason and sustaining a loss to Kerry GAA the Rebels will aim to come out of the blocks in style. Seasoned watchers will look for signs that Brian Cody’s rebuilding is well underway.
Pairc Ui Chaoimh league games under lights promise to be atmospheric with the gleam off the pitch and the sweeping curves making for a great venue. We’ll see if the likes of Darragh Fitzgibbon, Luke Meade Shane Kingston and Mark Coleman and co can continue live under lights where they paused the tape last summer. Kilkenny will be looking to bounce back after their fractious shoot out defeat to old rivals Wexford.
In Croke Park Pat Gilroy’s first league outing with the Dublin hurlers throws in at 5pm followed by the footballers all Leinster clash with Kildare GAA. Having given the O’Byrne cup a bye ball, it will be interesting to see can the Dubs hit the ground running with the big ball. Normal service to resume. But it is with the hurlers that the excitement lies with All Star Danny Sutcliffe among the talent back in the sticks.
Gilroy is clearly enthused but pragmatics on the prospects of taking on the Dublin hurlers, he told the Irish Times before the Fenway Classic in Boston that the county has enough players and doesn’t need to rely on dual players, He also revealed his own desire as youngster to play the small ball: “I would have preferred to be a Dublin hurler than a Dublin footballer,” he says, “but I wasn’t good enough. At the time hurling was a game that I preferred, all the way up. But I wasn’t as good as I was at football. There were more chances with the football.”
If it’s January, it must be Allianz League time. Get the O’Neills County winter gear on and get out to support your own local heroes!
FIXTURES
SATURDAY 27 JANUARY
Allianz Football League Roinn 1
Dublin 19:00 Kildare
Allianz Football League Roinn 2
Clare 14:00 Cavan
Cork 17:00 Tipperary
Allianz Football League Roinn 4
London 13:00 Carlow
Laois 19:00 Limerick
Allianz Hurling League Roinn 1
Cork 19:00 Kilkenny
Allianz Hurling League Roinn 1B
Dublin 17:00 Offaly