Peter Canavan has welcomed the decision to fix Saturday week's Leinster SFC semi-final between neighbours Kildare and Meath for Tullamore rather than Croke Park.

The Tyrone legend is expecting an electric atmosphere at the Co. Offaly venue - something that wouldn't have been guaranteed in the much bigger Croke Park. 

"Sky Sports GAA will cover the Kildare-Meath Leinster SFC clash in two weeks' time at Bord Na Mona O'Connor Park, Tullamore. I'm absolutely delighted that the game will be held in the Midlands and not in Croke Park," he wrote in his column for Sky Sports. 

"My fear was that the Leinster Council would play this one in HQ where there might be a crowd of about 20,000 or so. The truth is they would all have been lost in the 82,000 capacity stadium.

"Instead this game goes to Offaly. And the venue will be packed. Two teams will go at it hell for leather and, on Sky Sports, we'll be able to portray the full value of what this game means - and our culture - to spectators all over the world."

He added: "This weekend was one of local derbies - you could see in the more compact Leinster venues that the blazing atmosphere at most of those games was light years away from what it would be at a quarter-full Croke Park."

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