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Irene Cara

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Leinster Minor Championship Draws Give Local Sides Ample Opportunity To Progress

Tuesday, 25 January 2022 17:07

Laois, Offaly and Westmeath will all be hopeful of a deep run.

The Leinster minor football and hurling championship draws have flown a bit under the radar given the return of the senior competitions in recent weeks, but it is worth noting that local sides in both codes will be taking heart from them. 

They're due to run between March, starting on St. Patrick's weekend and the end of May. 

A reduced format took place for the last couple of season's due to covid but a group stage will be in place for 2022, meaning more games and more varied opponents for players who have been training hard for the opportunity in recent weeks and months. 

MFC Draw: 

Group 1: Laois, Westmeath, Dublin, Louth. 

Group 2: Kildare, Longford, Meath, Offaly. 

Group 3: Carlow, Wexford, Wicklow 

  • Each team in group one and two will play three rounds of fixtures with the top side advancing straight to a semi-final.
  • Second placed teams in those groups will be put into a quarter-final slot.
  • Third place finishers in group one and two, plus the top two teams in group three will qualify for a preliminary last-eight tie and a traditional knockout competition will ensure thereafter. 

Offaly will be confident of having a good tilt at top spot in group two, with Kildare possibly providing their stiffest opposition. 

Laois and Westmeath know they'll be underdogs against Dublin, but will fancy their chances against Louth and that could mean their clash in the opening round on March 19th is a de-facto quarter-final shootout. 

The process for the minor hurling championship is a little more convoluted. 

It'll run between March and May also on alternating weekends to the football championship. 

Teams have been separated into tier one, two and three based on recent performances as follows. 

MHC Draw:

Tier 1 - Dublin, Kilkenny, Wexford. 

Tier 2 - Offaly, Kildare, Laois. 

Tier 3 - Westmeath, Antrim, Carlow, Derry, Down, Meath.

In the top two tiers, teams will play two games, one home and one away.

  • The top two teams in tier one will qualify for the semi-finals directly while the one remaining team are allocated a quarter-final spot. 
  • The top team in tier two will qualify for a quarter-final spot, the second and third placed sides advance to a preliminary quarter-final. 
  • Tier three will be a bit more helter-skelter, with Westmeath scheduled to play five games, with the top two going into the preliminary quarter-final draw and the remaining teams contesting the Peadar O'Liathain Cup.

The fallout is that Offaly and Laois will both be eyeing one another up for top spot and a last eight spot in tier two. The games against an up and coming Kildare side will be interesting, but ultimately very disappointing if the lilywhites can overturn them. 

Westmeath have a number of tricky ties in tier three, including Carlow, Derry and Antrim who will all harbour ambitions of making it into the top two positions. 

However much like their counterparts in Laois and Offaly it'll be deemed a major let down if they can't come out on top in this initial phase. 

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