THE GAA MAY reconsider the amount of games played at Croke Park next winter following the battering taken by the pitch in recent months.
The surface has struggled to cope with the number of club games played on it across December and January with criticism of the sod coming from various quarters.
Pat Hoban, after leading Ballyhale Shamrocks to the All-Ireland club hurling title, was highly critical of the surface while All-Ireland club football final Glen manager Malachy O’Rourke said it wasn’t “what you would like for an All-Ireland final”.
Croke Park stadium and commercial director Peter McKenna acknowledged the complaints and said it is something the GAA needs to carefully consider before setting out next winter’s schedule of games.
“The pitch is covered and it’s going to go through a recovery period between now and the next game which is about three weeks away,” said McKenna at the launch of the GAA’s annual report and finances document.
“Really, we’ve just got to weigh up how many games we can play in a window of time on the pitch. But it’s not easy to say what would you put out of there? The ladies matches were very important. The camogie match was very important. We had the Leinster (club men’s) semis, in hurling and football, the Leinster finals, the (All-Ireland) club semis and finals. So which of those do we not do?
“I mean, the pitch didn’t look well. It was playing okay though certainly without grass cover it’s hard to rise a ball and there was some criticism of that. I’d acknowledge that and we’ll look at it and see what’s really the optimum number of games you can play during that period.
“I think that’s something to come back to (before next winter). You never like to see it looking so tired. It’s what everyone wants to see when they come in, the pitch. But it’ll be fine in the next couple of weeks.”
McKenna assured that the at times bare and chopped up surface had nothing to do with the Garth Brooks gigs that were staged there in September.
“It had nothing to do with Garth Brooks, genuinely they were very, very happy with the pitch post Garth Brooks,” he said. “It held up well. It’s just we’ve had a lot of traffic on it.”
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Well done Meath. Great game. Excellent advertisement for Ladies GAA.
Hard luck, Kayleigh, and the rest of the Kerry team. Better luck next year.
@Padraig O Muirthile: the skill in that game was better than any game in gaa this year hurling football or whatever
Fabulous game, that’s a great Meath team. A joy to watch their passing, no glory hunters, all full team players.
Congratulations great game of football
@Derek hutchings: Not sure about it being a great game. Outside of their opening burst of scores Kerry only scored 5 times for the rest of the game. That’s about 1 score every 10 minutes.
Super defensive showing by Meath but Kerry looked decidedly naive. Kerry will learn from today (both management & players) and will be better if they reach the final again next year.
Am I the the only one who thought referee was officious and ruined many aspects of the game by not applying the advantage. It was a great game which could have been much better if allowed flow.
@Liam O’Flaherty: Maggie does always try make the game about her. When she does linesperson the ref spends most of the game getting called over by Maggie.
@Michael Anthony: as a neutral I thought she ruined what could have been a classic. Both teams must have been frustrated by her.
@Liam O’Flaherty: I thought that as well I think the GAA need to change some of the rules like not been able to do a fair shoulder and tackle a player most of those players if not all go to the gym so would be able for the rough and tumble of the game that’s what ruined it for me
Some team
Great game much better fare than last week
Congrats to meath. Was I the only one who thought it was a poor game
Time to split Meath
@Glen Durney: We could call them Meath & Westmeath
@Cian Mac Eoin: what about East Meath?
@Eugene O Doherty: north Meath. Capital oldcastle
In the first minute Farrelly gave 2 frees against Meath for charging and both were blatant trips. She kept this consistency up throughout the game and did her best to ruin it. It’s almost like a feather in cap for ladies football refs to send Vicki Wall off. Gets pulled and dragged all day, every day and gets sin binned for the abuse she takes.
Great game, thought Emma Duggan was unlucky not to get player of the game
It’s time to split Meath. East Meath and… oh hold on
That’s the tender Palace niteclub ruined again overrun again by red face, un-maked-up ‘ladies’ of sport wearing their sports kit on ze dance floor.