The Sunday Game

[AZOffaly]

Exactly. And yet they want to go to Croker too.

That's funny because I don't hear many of them moaning. Have you been talking to Mick O'Dwyer, perhaps? I know he loves driving.

If you want to take up the issue of distances, I think you better take it up with the good people at Google Maps.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/mayos-appeal-against-limerick-replay-venue-likely-to-be-turned-down-283454.html

"It's an unusual one alright," said Kerry boss Eamon Fitzmaurice. "At this stage of the summer we love coming to Croke Park. We love playing in Croke Park. The players love coming up here.

As for your Google Maps, just had a look and if you go from Castlebar to Galway, it suggests the N84, as it does from Belmullet to Galway.

That's hardly complaining. Kerry fans will be happy out. Now if it was fixed for Galway you'd hear different.

[Jim_Murphy_74]

Thurles would be even further than Limerick for Mayo I'd have thought?

If distance was the only issue then Limerick is hardly much further than Dublin.

Thurles has more covered seats than Limerick and is a better pitch.

/Jim.

[seafoid]

Of course you do. You, from Dublin, would have more local knowledge of Castlebar to Galway than any Castlebar man.

What makes you think I wouldn't? Contrary to the you belief, some Dublin people do actually regularly travel out of Dublin, you know, and can actually be very familiar with such roads.

You on the other hand, appear to believe that Castlebar is nearer to Dublin than it is to Limerick.

Local knowledge, eh?

It's about time rather than distance innit .

[Farrandeelin]

You're good at shit stirring Sidney. That and Canicw.

[Sidney]

Same blockages in Gort. Same road to Limerick/Ennis.

Nevermind the possibilities for more chaos in places like Tuam and Claregalway and the like. If anything Mayo supporters will have an even worse time of it than we had in 2006.

To be honest, it's seems you're enjoying roiling up people about an inane f**k-up on the GAA's part. The more you look at it the more indefensible it is as a decision and as an excuse why Saturday week is unavailable. Imaginary potential replay trumps actually-real replay. Brill.

But it's not the same road to Limerick/Ennis. The M18 did not exist in 2006.

The GAA are dead right to consider the possibility of a Dublin-Donegal replay. Playing the Kerry-Mayo replay in Limerick is an insurance policy against double booking. Sure, the likelihood is that there will will be a definitive result in the Dublin-Donegal match, but if it's a draw and Croke Park is double booked, you end up with an almighty clusterfuck of a situation - and playing a Dublin-Donegal replay on September 13th and putting the All-Ireland final back a week, as at least one other poster suggested on another thread, is not an option.

Not planning for something which probably won't happen, but potentially might, is poor planning. The GAA have planned for it, and that's sensible.

[AZOffaly]

Sidney, I think you're winding up the Mayo lads with your travel tips, but I think you are right about planning. Whether we like it or not, the GAA had a plan for a replay which went into force immediately on the final whistle on Sunday. They booked the American Football in the full knowledge that this plan would be needed, and they have put the plan in motion.

I think they will be surprised at how angry some folk are about this, and it may cause them to rethink in future, but I've no doubt they considered the possibility and that's why this alternative was in place.

[orangeman]

Wait to you hear the bitching if it pisses rain all day and all evening during the game on Saturday and the patrons get soaked.

Ponchos for sale just in case. You need to plan for the weather.

[Greenabovethered]

The GPA has been suspiciously quiet with regard to transferring the 2nd biggest game of the GAA calendar to a provincial backwater. Sorry I forgot, they have Donal's pet project the Super 11's in Croke Park before the America football (football, surely throwball?) on Sunday.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

[Hardy]

Micko gets expenses for driving Sidney. Remember that.

Ah! that's the bit I was missing. Micko is Sidney's driver.

[Bensars]

The GPA has been suspiciously quiet with regard to transferring the 2nd biggest game of the GAA calendar to a provincial backwater. Sorry I forgot, they have Donal's pet project the Super 11's in Croke Park before the America football (football, surely throwball?) on Sunday.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Exactly.... it'll mean a few more jollys out to the states, expenses paid,to play to a handful of people stood behind a rope.

"All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others."

[Sidney]

The GPA has been suspiciously quiet with regard to transferring the 2nd biggest game of the GAA calendar to a provincial backwater. Sorry I forgot, they have Donal's pet project the Super 11's in Croke Park before the America football (football, surely throwball?) on Sunday.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Of course if there was no kind of promotion of GAA-related activities on the day's programme of events people would be moaning about that too, and now that there is, we've moaning about that.

If you're looking for pigs they'll be dressed like this:

[muppet]

Exactly. And yet they want to go to Croker too.

That's funny because I don't hear many of them moaning. Have you been talking to Mick O'Dwyer, perhaps? I know he loves driving.

If you want to take up the issue of distances, I think you better take it up with the good people at Google Maps.

http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/mayos-appeal-against-limerick-replay-venue-likely-to-be-turned-down-283454.html

"It's an unusual one alright," said Kerry boss Eamon Fitzmaurice. "At this stage of the summer we love coming to Croke Park. We love playing in Croke Park. The players love coming up here.

As for your Google Maps, just had a look and if you go from Castlebar to Galway, it suggests the N84, as it does from Belmullet to Galway.

That's hardly complaining. Kerry fans will be happy out. Now if it was fixed for Galway you'd hear different.

http://www.thescore.ie/tomas-o-se-1638493-Aug2014/

TOMÁS Ó SÉ believes it is 'wrong' that next Saturday's All-Ireland semi-final replay has been taken out of Croke Park.

The ex-Kerry defender, who won five All-Ireland titles and five Allstar awards in a stellar career, has also revealed the Gaelic Grounds was never a venue he found favour with during his playing days.

"I can only speak personally. I never enjoyed playing games in Limerick and it's no disrespect to Limerick. I don't know what it is.
"Some fields aren't football fields in my eyes. I didn't enjoy playing in Tralee either. I love Killarney. I love Pairc Ui Chaoimh and I love this place here (Croke Park).

"I think it's brilliant that American Football can come here but I mean it's a GAA field and it's our field. It was bad planning to put an American football game in our busiest window of the year.

[J OGorman]

The GPA has been suspiciously quiet with regard to transferring the 2nd biggest game of the GAA calendar to a provincial backwater. Sorry I forgot, they have Donal's pet project the Super 11's in Croke Park before the America football (football, surely throwball?) on Sunday.

"The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which."

Of course if there was no kind of promotion of GAA-related activities on the day's programme of events people would be moaning about that too, and now that there is, we've moaning about that.

If you're looking for pigs they'll be dressed like this:

you're quite the gangsta

[muppet]

Of course you do. You, from Dublin, would have more local knowledge of Castlebar to Galway than any Castlebar man.

What makes you think I wouldn't? Contrary to the you belief, some Dublin people do actually regularly travel out of Dublin, you know, and can actually be very familiar with such roads.

You on the other hand, appear to believe that Castlebar is nearer to Dublin than it is to Limerick.

Local knowledge, eh?

Show me where I said that and you win. Gold medal and world record all in one.

[Tubberman]

The ever-excellent Keith Duggan sums up the situation very well

http://www.irishtimes.com/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/gaa-has-fumbled-the-ball-and-is-jerking-both-kerry-and-mayo-players-around-1.1907613?page=1



A headline posted recently on the bleacherreport.com warned that next Saturday's NCAA football opener between Penn State and Central Florida scheduled for Croke Park is "Threatened by Potential Volcanic Eruption".

It was too much to hope that the good people at Bleacher had somehow pre-empted the unholy reaction of David Brady and other Mayo stalwarts to news that that Mayo and Kerry's All-Ireland semi-final replay was being shifted to Limerick to facilitate a game of American football.

Alas no, they were merely referring to the smoke emanating from Iceland. In keeping with the general theme, the county teams and fans weren't on the agenda.

Mayo manager James Horan chose the perfect word is his post-match reaction to news of Kerry and Mayo's being bumped to an off-Broadway venue. "Bizarre" just about sums up a situation which has Aidan O'Shea and Declan O'Sullivan running through their warm-ups for a huge championship match in a provincial ground while, on the same afternoon, Christian Hackenberg will be seeking to enhance his pass-completion record for the Nittany Lions in the GAA's theatre of dreams. It is bizarre and unprecedented.

Television viewers still reeling from the truly brilliant drawn match on Sunday must have assumed they misheard Michael Lyster declare that the replay would go ahead on Limerick on Saturday. Limerick! On Saturday? Why? At 5?

Within minutes the reason became clear. Speaking from Croke Park on RTÉ radio less than an hour after the match, former Kerry player Michael Quirke noted that cheerleaders from Penn State had taken the field to go through a practice routine. His tone was lighthearted but the observation contained a highly relevant point. Once the full-time whistle went on Sunday, American football was the only game in town as far as Croke Park was concerned.

The Croke Park Classic is a heavyweight money spinner. Sixteen thousand Americans flying in, 4,000 gridiron fans from around Europe and an estimated €30 million for the economy: what's not to love? Speaking on Today FM recently, Croke Park commercial director Peter McKenna emphasised the razzmatazz- the tailgating, the cheerleaders, the parachutist landing with the match ball, the Dublin Gospel Choir. It sounded great. Meanwhile, in the Gaelic Grounds, there's a fair chance the immersion will be switched on for the local lads.

The GAA has already lined up another American football classic for 2017 and hopes to host one every other year. Because it must be scheduled as a season opener in August, the busiest month of the GAA calendar in Croke Park, the GAA limited its options for replays in the All-Ireland championship. They must have silently hoped that this situation wouldn't come to pass. And fingers-crossed is not good enough. Main fault It could be argued that the main fault lies in the overall All-Ireland season scheduling. Mayo started their championship quest in the Bronx on May 4th. Their next match was on June 8th. They then played and won the Connacht final on July 13th. Three games, three months. Kerry, meanwhile, finished their league programme on April 6th and waited until June 22nd for their next competitive match, a Munster semi-final against Clare. They won their provincial final against Cork on July 4th. So an All-Ireland championship which begins with huge gaps between games demands that two of its last four teams prepare for a season-defining match with just a six-day turnaround. There is no reason why this stage of the season needs to be so congested.

Even within the existing framework, there is no reason why Mayo versus Kerry can't take place on Saturday, September 6th. The official explanation – that the GAA had to take into account the possibility of a draw between Dublin and Donegal next Sunday – is flawed. It inadvertently suggests – or perhaps betrays- the sense that the Dublin/Donegal fixture is somehow pre-eminent in the minds of those who run these matters. On Sunday evening, a Dublin/Donegal replay was a relatively faint possibility. A Kerry/Mayo replay had become a reality. Why not give that replay the September 6th slot and release a statement clarifying that should the Dublin/Donegal semi-final finish in a draw it would (a) take place in Croke Park as part of an All-Ireland semi-final double header with preference given to ticket-holders from the drawn match or that (b) both matches would take place in Croke Park at 2pm and 6pm, allowing the stadium to be cleared after the first match or (c) that the Dublin/Donegal replay would take place at an alternative venue, with all the attendant romance/novelty that comes with the rarity of Dublin playing championship matches on the road.

For neutrals, there is something tantalising about the pure novelty of a Saturday evening All-Ireland semi-final in Limerick. It is something unexpected – and less of a hike for both sets of supporters. Isn't fair But that is not the point. The situation isn't fair on either team. It means Mayo must travel and play in a venue which Kerry are well used to.

This is not to suggest it gives Kerry an advantage, necessarily: few teams respond to the liberation of playing in Croke Park as consistently as Kerry. There is no question that they would prefer to be going back to the Jones Road.

When teams reach the All-Ireland series, they are mentally locked into the idea of playing in Croke Park for the remainder of the season. It is a sacred place: playing there has always been regarded as something a reward in itself. To tamper with that is unfair on teams and managers. They work too hard, put too many hours in and get so little in recompense. They shouldn't be jerked around.

This latest embarrassment leaves the GAA more open than ever to accusations that money is the first and last consideration in its reasoning.

The bottom line is that Kerry and Mayo are playing in Limerick this Saturday to safeguard the possibility of a Dublin/Donegal draw and another full house in Croke Park on September 6th.

So a championship season which began with the controversy over the Sky broadcasting rights deal and had the Garth Brooks fiasco for its half-time entertainment is finishing by rewarding two teams which thrilled the country with the match of the summer with a take-it-or-leave it replay in Mick Mackey's old stomping ground.

The American visitors would recognise this for what it is. The GAA has fumbled the ball.