Date, time and venue for Kerry’s All-Ireland Under-20 Football Championship semi-final against Meath also confirmed
Joe O’Connor of Kerry in action against Joel Wilson of Monaghan during the counties’ National League Division 1 match in Clones in February. The rematch takes place next weekend in the All-Ireland SFC Group 4
Kerry will start their All-Ireland SFC Group 1 trio of fixtures at home to Monaghan on Saturday, May 18 in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney. The GAA have confirmed the first round of games involving the Munster champions and beaten finalists, and Connacht champions and beaten finalists.
Following last Sunday’s seven-point win over Clare to retain their Munster title, Kerry were confirmed as the top seeded team in Group 4, with Clare going into Group 3 as second seed. Galway’s win over Mayo puts the Tribesmen into Group 1 as top seed while Mayo are in Group 2 as second seed.
Kerry will play Monaghan, Meath and the beaten Leinster finalists (Dublin or Louth) starting with their home game against Monaghan on Saturday week, May 18 with a 3pm start in Killarney. The game will be broadcast on GAAGO.
Two weeks later, on the weekend of June 1/2, Kerry will go to Navan to play fourth seed Meath, and a fortnight later they will play either Dublin or Louth at a neutral venue on the weekend of June 15/16.
The other All-Ireland SFC Group Stage games on Saturday, May 18 are Galway v Derry (Group 1 at 5.30pm), Mayo v Cavan (Group 2 at 5pm) and Clare v Cork (Group 3 at 6pm).
Meanwhile, the Kerry Under-20 footballers have had their All-Ireland semi-final against Leinster champions Meath confirmed for this Saturday, May 11 at Semple Stadium, Thurles. The game starts at 3pm and will be refereed by Thomas Murphy from Galway. Extra-time and winner on the day applies for both Under-20 semi-finals, and Kerry v Meath will be broadcast on TG4.
The other semi-final is between Roscommon and Tyrone, with the final scheduled for the weekend of May 18/19. If Kerry were to qualify for the Under-20 final there is a fair assumption it would not clash with the Kerry v Monaghan SFC game on the Saturday, and therefore would be played on Sunday.
Meanwhile, the Kerry hurlers fourth round game in the Joe McDonagh Cup against Offaly has been confirmed for Sunday, May 19 in O’Connor Park, Tullamore with a 1pm start.
If the Kerry Under-20 footballers were to qualify for the All-Ireland final, against Roscommon or Tyrone, it could open up the possibility of a double-header with the Kerry hurlers’ game against Offaly in Tullamore. That in itself would lead to an interesting situation where Luke Crowley, who has played with the hurlers and U-20 footballers in recent weeks, being at the same venue with both those teams, but obviously the Glenflesk footballer and Rathmore hurler would have to choose one.
