All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship Qualifiers

Semple Stadium Thurles will be the venue for a double-header of All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship action on Saturday evening next. At 5:00pm, Waterford will play Offaly while at 7:00pm, Cork take on Galway.

Admission Details

The GAA has confirmed that the GAA Hurling All Ireland Senior Championship qualifier programme – Phase 4 at Semple Stadium, Thurles is NOT an all-ticket event. However Unreserved stand and terrace tickets can be pre-purchased on www.gaa.ie, from the GAA ticket office on 01/8658657 or from Ticketmaster outlets.

Admission Prices are as follows:
Stand €25
Stand Juvenile €5
Terrace €15
Senior Citizens/Students (with I.D.) Stand €10
Student Terrace (with I.D.) €10
Juvenile Terrace Free

Waterford vs. Offaly – This will be only the second senior championship game between the counties, having met for the first time in the All-Ireland qualifiers in 2005 when Waterford won by 1-26 to 1-15 at Dr.Cullen Park. Paul Flynn (1-8), John Mullane (0-8) and Ken McGrath (0-5) were Waterford’s top scorers while Brian Carroll (0-5), Damien Murray (1-0) and Aidan Hanrahan (1-0) were Offaly’s top scorers. Offaly were well beaten by Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final last month but bounced back in great style to beat Limerick by ten points in a qualifier tie last Saturday. Waterford lost to Clare in the Munster quarter-final but revived their All-Ireland prospects with a comfortable qualifier win over Antrim.

Cork vs. Galway – This will be the 30th championship clash between the counties, stretching back to 1901 when they met for the first time in the All-Ireland semi-final which Cork won by 7-12 to 1-3. Cork lead 25-4 with Galway’s four wins coming in 1975-79-85-2002. They last met in the 2005 All-Ireland final which a Cork team, for whom Ben O’Connor scored 1-7, won by 1-21 to 1-16. Ger Farragher was Galway’s top scorer on 0-8. Galway’s last win over Cork was in the 2002 All-Ireland qualifiers. Eugene Cloonan scored 0-9 as they ran out easy winners, 0-21 to 1-9 in Semple Stadium.

Last Five Championship Clashes
2005: Cork 1-21 Galway 1-16 (All-Ireland final)
2002: Galway 0-21 Cork 1-9 (All-Ireland qualifier)
1990: Cork 5-15 Galway 2-21 (All-Ireland final)
1986: Cork 4-13 Galway 2-15 (All-Ireland final)
1985: Galway 4-12 Cork 5-5 (All-Ireland semi-final)

CORK (SH v Galway) — D Og Cusack; S O’Neill, D O’Sullivan, B Murphy; J Gardiner, R Curran, S Og O hAilpin; T Kenny, J O’Connor; P Cronin, N McCarthy, T McCarthy; B O’Connor, J Deane, C Naughton