WATERFORD AND LIMERICK are currently playing out the Munster MHC final in Thurles.
The game threw in 10 minutes late due to crowd congestion however.
Semple Stadium officials initially opened one stand but were then forced to open the other one. There was no stewards to help open gates on the other side so spectators simply walked across the pitch during the teams’ warm-up routines.
Pic: INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan
So irish
Typical gaa bolloxology. 30 young lads held up due to more gaa shambles
What are you on about!
Thankfully there was no one injured. It’s a complete joke that this should be happening in this day. No stewards at hand? Simply not acceptable
They probably should have anticipated a bigger crowd especially as Limerick hurling on such a high meant they in particular were bound to travel in large numbers. I’ve been to some amount of Minor & U21 games in the Stadium and usually the New Stand side is all is open and its plenty.
To be fair can’t imagine anyone was going to be injured walking across the best playing surface in the country and up the steps into the Old Stand!!
Unfortunate that it happened really for the players trying to get organised for the throw in. Not exactly the end of the world though methinks!
Someone could have died!!
Surely the stand holds the 6400 people that were there considering the stadium holds 55000?
Wasn’t there Chris but I’d imagine ppl came into Stadium in large numbers all together just at or slightly before throw-in, saw the middle sections were pretty full and rather than sit on the e d line they moved across to the empty Old Stand.
It’s done the whole time at Club and lesser Underage games in the Stadium but usually well before throw in and in less numbers.
End not ed line!
New Stand I would say holds around 10,000 if full, and as both photos above show the End sections were effectively empty, the barrier which has plenty of exit gates onto pitch for safety reasons is only waist high.
If you were sitting on 14 yd line and saw a 15,000 seat stand directly opposite with nothing to stop you walking across to in to sit on half way line what would you do???
Look, the old stand is where the people want to be. They don’t like the new stand in Thurles and quite frankly most people have never seen Limerick win much from that side. The people went to where they wanted to sit.
In the Gaelic Grounds in Limerick, patrons are free to walk over to the open stand once they come through the turnstiles in the Mackey stand. It makes sense
Good man Henry
ah come on Henry what does it matter where you sit as long as you get a seat??. i agree stewards were a joke but it was bad form for people to simply walk across field in front of teams preparing for a big game
and as for Limerick people not liking new stand because of the tradition of seeing various Limerick teams winning from there that is bull. Limerick people do not have a god given right to sit where they want in a stadium. if the stand was not open they.should have stayed in new stand down where there were plenty of seats ps i am from Limerick myself
people haven’t seen limerick win much from that side ??? is this a parody account someone set up to take the piss out of Henry ?? he’s an intelligent knowledgable guy in reality
I have to disagree. Limerick people (I am one of them) DO have a god given right to sit wherever the hell we want. Not just at hurling matches but anywhere…cinema, theatres, concerts. We sit where we like. It’s our God given right.
Joe what you talking about, alot of the people that walked across where from Waterford as they arrived late and didnt want to sit in the end of the stand, the amount of Waterford people I saw walking in at the last minute was unreal. Also there where at most 6 stewarts on duty, I saw one in the stand and they had 5 stiles open and 2 of them where u-16s and oaps. Semple crowd made an utter mess of this plain and simple and its got nothing to do with the Munster council.
This year Paddy, this year only pal!
I think it shows a bit of a lack of respect for the young fellas preparing for the match. They most definitely should not have had to contend with that. The pitch is for people involved in the game. Poor organisation by ground stewards should have opened the gates behind the terraces and allowed people to walk around that way. That’s what they did in navan a number of years back when a huge crowd turned up for leinster minor semi between Louth and Dublin. It just looks bad. It is possible for volunteers to be a bit more organised.
Whatever about needing to get to the other stand the fans behaved like ignoramuses by walking across the pitch- why couldn’t they have shown the players just a little bit of respect and walked around behind the goal ?
Those players have trained their asses off for months on end and when they are only minutes away from their biggest game of the year a bunch of planks decide to get in their way and disturb the warm up.
Well thankfully not Pat! The point I was making, was surely be to God that there should be at least stewards all around the ground. Semple Stadium has one of the best surfaces in the country but surely the GAA should have better crowd management plans in place to keep it that way !
How many stewards would be required to hold back 1,000 ppl looking for better seats? All at the same time! If they’d opened both stands problem wouldn’t have arisen but I’d say the athmosphere would have been diluted with 6,400 spread between 26,000 seats!
The Old Stand is by far the biggest and has the best view but ppl expect the New Stand to always be open.