GAA draw: Dublin to face Donegal in early Sunday throw-in at Croke Park as fixture details confirmed

All-Ireland SFC Round 3:

Saturday, June 21st

Kerry v Armagh, Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney, 4pm (GAA+)

Mayo v Meath, MacHale Park, Castlebar, 6.15pm (GAA+)

Sunday, June 22nd

Dublin v Donegal, Croke Park, 1.15pm (RTÉ One)

Monaghan v Westmeath, St Tiarnach’s Park, Clones, 4pm (GAA+)

Tailteann Cup semi-finals:

Down v Fermanagh, Croke Park, 3pm (RTÉ 2)

Offaly v Wicklow, Croke Park, 5pm (RTÉ News Channel)

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Here’s Gordon Manning’s take on the draw:

Kerry will host Armagh in a blockbuster knockout All-Ireland SFC Round 3 showdown next weekend.

Monday morning’s draw also pitted Dublin against Donegal, with the Dubs to have home advantage – though it will be confirmed later today whether the venue is to be Croke Park or Parnell Park.

Speaking after Dublin’s win over Cavan on Sunday, Dublin boss Ger Brennan indicated he would prefer for his side to play a potential Round 3 home match at Parnell Park rather than Croke Park.

However, with the likely high demand for tickets to see Dublin take on Donegal, there may yet be a push from officials for the game to be played at Croke Park.

But the tie of the round is set to take place in Killarney, where one of the All-Ireland favourites will be eliminated from the championship.

Jack O’Connor’s Kerry will have the benefit of home advantage, but there are no safety nets remaining for the reigning Sam Maguire holders. Kieran McGeeney’s Armagh lost to Louth with a buzzer-beater goal in Inniskeen on Sunday.

Mayo will have home advantage against Meath, while Westmeath must travel to Clones to face Monaghan.

In the Tailteann Cup semi-finals, which will take place on Saturday at Croke Park, Down will play face Fermanagh in an all-Ulster clash, while Oisín McConville’s Wicklow will meet fellow Leinster outfit Offaly.

Details of all fixtures will be finalised later today.

So here are the All-Ireland SFC third-round ties, the team with home advantage listed first:

Monaghan v Westmeath

Dublin v Donegal

Mayo v Meath

Kerry v Armagh

And the Tailteann Cup semi-finals, both of which will be played at Croke Park:

Offaly v Wicklow

Down v Fermanagh

All six games will be played this coming weekend, with times and venues to be confirmed later.

Now, on to the All-Ireland SFC Round 3 draw.

Remember, two bowls – Donegal, Armagh, Westmeath and Mayo in one, Monaghan, Kerry, Meath and Dublin in the other.

First up, Monaghan draw Westmeath. And Monaghan get home advantage.

Second out of bowl one is Donegal, and they’ll play Dublin. Dublin will have home advantage.

Mayo out next, and they draw Meath. Andy Moran’s Mayo get home advantage.

That’s leaves us with two; Armagh will play Kerry. And Kieran McGeeney’s men will be on the road, Kerry with home advantage. A grimace from Burns after that one.

And we’re under way. The draw is taking place in Tullamore. GAA president Jarlath Burns is there with Central Competitions Control Committee chair Brian Carroll.

The Tailteann Cup semi-final draw will take place first.

Offaly out first, and they’ll play Wicklow.

Then it’s Down v Fermanagh.

Not long now. Morning Ireland have gone to the news bulletin, with the draws taking place afterwards.

The Tailteann Cup draw also has a slight limitation in order to avoid a repeat pairing.

As Offaly and Down already met in Round 2A, the four semi-finalists have been separated into two bowls to avoid that pairing; Offaly and Down in one bowl, Wicklow and Fermanagh in the other.

There’s no home advantage here as both games will be played at Croke Park.

The format of this morning’s SFC draw will have the Round 2A losers (Donegal, Armagh, Westmeath and Mayo) in one pot to be draw against the Round 2B losers (Monaghan, Kerry, Meath and Dublin) from the other pot.

As we’ve mentioned, the draw will seek to avoid repeat pairings of provincial finalists, and, where possible, repeat pairings of counties who have already met earlier in the series.

With that in mind, the following pairings have been ruled out:

Donegal v Kerry (met in All-Ireland series, Round 1)

Armagh v Monaghan (met in Ulster final)

Westmeath v Dublin (met in Leinster final)

Mayo v Monaghan (met in All-Ireland series, Round 1)

Once the pairings have been set, another draw will take place to determine the venue, the first county out winning home advantage.

Since we’ve the time, we may as well do a quick run-through of the SFC format so we know how we got ourselves here.

Sixteen teams qualified for this year’s All-Ireland SFC, the eight provincial finalists, last year’s Tailteann Cup winners Kildare, and the seven highest ranking counties from the league who had not otherwise qualified.

That left us with Kerry, Cork, Westmeath, Dublin, Armagh, Monaghan, Roscommon, Galway, Kildare, Donegal, Mayo, Meath, Louth, Derry, Tyrone, and finally, Cavan.

In Round 1, the eight provincial finalists were drawn to play one of the non-provincial finalists. The winners went to Round 2A while the losers went to Round 2B. No jeopardy here.

In Round 2A, there again was no jeopardy. The four winning counties earned a spot in the quarter-finals while the losers were sent to Round 3 (the draw taking place this morning).

Round 2B, however, was knockout. The four winners are now in the pot for Round 3 while the four losers were eliminated from the championship.

The four counties who win their games in Round 3 will join the Round 2A winners in the quarter-finals. As has been the case in each round to this point, the draw will seek to avoid repeat pairings of provincial finals and then, where possible, counties who have met earlier in the All-Ireland series.

If you want to mull that over some more, we’ve a handy explainer on the All-Ireland series and Tailteann Cup below:

[ Confused by the new format for the All-Ireland football championship? Here’s how it worksOpens in new window ]

And here’s how the Tailteann Cup quarter-finals went:

Offaly 1-22 Wexford 1-17

Antrim 3-15 Wicklow 2-19

Laois 0-15 Down 2-23

Fermanagh 2-25 Sligo 0-9

Tailteann Cup wrap report

Quick-fire for those who may have missed the weekend’s results. Here’s how the 2A and 2B fixtures played out:

Round 2A

Donegal 1-13 Cork 0-17 (report)

Louth 2-20 Armagh 2-19 (report)

Galway 3-21 Westmeath 2-21 (report)

Tyrone 0-22 Mayo 1-18 (report)

Round 2B

Monaghan 1-20 Roscommon 0-14 (report)

Kildare 0-17 Kerry 3-22 (report)

Derry 1-20 Meath 1-24 (report)

Cavan 0-16 Dublin 1-24 (report)

Good morning everyone! Welcome along to The Irish Times live blog for the draws for the third round of the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship and the Tailteann Cup semi-finals.

The draws will take place during Morning Ireland on RTÉ Radio 1 shortly after the 8.30am news bulletin.

In the Sam Maguire draw, which will determine the four pairings for Round 3, are the counties who lost their Round 2A fixtures at the weekend – Donegal, Armagh, Westmeath and Mayo – and the counties who won their games in Round 2B – Monaghan, Kerry, Meath and Dublin.

The four 2A winners (Cork, Louth, Galway and Tyrone) have scurried off to the quarter-finals, while we waved goodbye to the four 2B losers (Roscommon, Kildare, Derry and Cavan).

With the conclusion of Round 2A, which was the last stage of the new championship format that wasn’t knockout (the losers getting another chance in Round 3), from here on out, it’s win or bust for each of the remaining counties.

The Tailteann Cup draw is more straightforward – the four quarter-final winners (Offaly, Wicklow, Down and Fermanagh) are being draw into their respective semi-finals.

All six games will be played this coming weekend.

We’ll be keeping you updated on how the draws pans out, but to get warmed up, have a read if the latest instalment of the Schmozzle below:

Click here to read article