The Allianz hurling and football league finals are now virtually certain to share the same Croke Park billing on Sunday week, regardless of what counties are involved or any deferral of the Division 3 football final that may be required.

A final decision on the finals schedule has yet to be taken but both league finals look set to feature on the same programme on Sunday afternoon with the Division 2 football final switching to Saturday night.

With Dublin not contesting a league football final for the first time since 2012, a league hurling final with All-Ireland champions Limerick or Dublin and Galway or Waterford, who play in this weekend's semi-finals, would significantly boost the attendance.

League hurling finals have largely been played in Thurles in recent years though they have gone to Nowlan Park and the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick too. These days they are rarely played in Croke Park. Dublin's win over Kilkenny in 2011 was the last to be played there.

It will be the first time in recent memory that both league finals will be played on the same day at the same venue. The league hurling final was due to be played this weekend but was put back by a week because of weather-related postponements.

There is a potential triple-header in Croke Park tomorrow week if Longford beat Westmeath, Down beat Louth and Laois beat Carlow, allowing the Division 3 final to go ahead as scheduled between Down and Laois.

In that scenario, the outstanding Westmeath v Louth game, postponed last week, wouldn't be relevant to the final pairing so the Division 3 final could go ahead.

If there is a requirement for the Westmeath v Louth game to be played, the final will be put back a week and the Division 2 and 4 finals will go ahead on Saturday, March 30.

Irish Independent