PLAN B PLAN B!!!!!

[Malvinas]

Croke Park has today confirmed that it will avail of the services of the gunboat Helga in order to prevent supporters from making it on to the pitch following today's senior football All Ireland. While traditional on field celebrations have been banned for some years, it is feared that Dublin supporters especially would attempt to celebrate on the pitch in the event of a famous victory. The Helga, which has been moored on the Liffey and is primed for use, is well known to the people of Dublin. A Croke Park Spokesman confirmed, "it would be a shame if due to the actions of a few bad apples, we were required to resort to live shelling to keep supporters off the playing surface."

[GalwayBayBoy]

Croke Park has today confirmed that it will avail of the services of the gunboat Helga in order to prevent supporters from making it on to the pitch following today's senior football All Ireland. While traditional on field celebrations have been banned for some years, it is feared that Dublin supporters especially would attempt to celebrate on the pitch in the event of a famous victory. The Helga, which has been moored on the Liffey and is primed for use, is well known to the people of Dublin. A Croke Park Spokesman confirmed, "it would be a shame if due to the actions of a few bad apples, we were required to resort to live shelling to keep supporters off the playing surface."

[Hardy]

This is your big chance ALL DUBLIN people to be loved by the other 31 counties and break down the wall of steel around the 82,000 prisoners.  Gd Luck

[LeoMc]

Have to say I was happy enough with Plan A.
Those players put in a massive effort all year, early morning sessions and so on and would have built a great bond in that time. It was great that they had the time and space to celebrate together.
You wouldn't have had scenes with the Brogans and Alan's we lad if there were 40-50,000 Dubs on the field.

[deiseach]

Have to say I was happy enough with Plan A.
Those players put in a massive effort all year, early morning sessions and so on and would have built a great bond in that time. It was great that they had the time and space to celebrate together.
You wouldn't have had scenes with the Brogans and Alan's we lad if there were 40-50,000 Dubs on the field.

You'd have had different types of scenes. I miss the pitch invasion, but I accept it's gone

[Whitehair]

You wouldn't have had scenes with the Brogans and Alan's we lad if there were 40-50,000 Dubs on the field.

Ah c'mon lad, As a Gael did you grow up dreaming of one day walking up the steps of the Hogan Stand and lifting Sam in front of thousands of your fans on the pitch.... or winning Sam and putting your child in the cup on the 21!? I know what I dreamt of!

[blewuporstuffed]

Have to say I was happy enough with Plan A.
Those players put in a massive effort all year, early morning sessions and so on and would have built a great bond in that time. It was great that they had the time and space to celebrate together.You wouldn't have had scenes with the Brogans and Alan's we lad if there were 40-50,000 Dubs on the field.

they get that time and space in the dressing room afterwards.
i felt it was a bit of an anticlimax without the fans on the pitch. i structured safe way of letting people on would have been great i think.

[Farrandeelin]

We need Armagh to win it again soon

[Bingo]

I thought it looked grand yesterday, players got plenty of space - the Hill was focus for the players. Other good memories could also take place - Brogan with the wee lad, all the players meeting Pillar, kerry team able to stay and pay the winners their respects without having to charge off down the tunnel.

Went well I thought.

[Kerry Mike]

I stayed to the end yesterday having a chat with a dub next to me high up in the hogan, and even though painful to watch for a losing team it is best when suporters stay off the field, we had it ourselves in 2000 and I have long thought it would becomes the norm. the players really enjoy it, and they have the time to really savour the moment with the panel and management who they have trained with all year.

[Eamonnca1]

Sitting on the back wall of the Canal Terrace with nothing stopping you from a fatal drop to the ground below was part of what it was to be Irish. It has never been the same since. We have lost all sense of our national identity because of the health and safety Nazis who insisted on that new fangled stadium being built with all its spacious corridors, ample toilets, easy access and intelligible sound system. What happened to the good old days when men would piss up against any old wall at the back of the Cusack stand because the small number of jacks were too full? What happened to the lifting of children over turnstiles to let them fill the place with more people than it was designed to hold? What happened to the tradition of bringing a hang sangwich and flask of tea with you because you knew there would be damn all worth eating in Croke Park? What happened to the crush of the crowds into the tiny passageways before and after the game and the terrified looks of children clinging to their parents' hands for fear that they'd get separated in the throng? Grrrrr!  Christy Cooney is Hitler incarnate! 

[Eamonnca1]

The pitch invasion issue is only one of a long line on which the top brass at Croke Park are dictating to, rather than leading the rest of the grass roots players and members. 

So the management is supposed to "lead" the grass roots and players by "following" them? How does that work?

Just off the top of my head I can think a long line of examples from this year alone, from the Wexford Goalie being forced to apologise to Clubs being told they need prior authority before live streaming. Before the visit of the Queen all discussion about the visit, either for or against, were banned. Even last week the Drumragh club from Tyrone were prevented from their 15 minutes of fame on the pitch after soloing all the way from Omagh in aid of the Micheala Foundation. And still we have the Hill 16 screens, like something out of an English ground mid eighties.

If you criticise the management in the media then you'd expect to pay a price, wouldn't you? As for the mid 1980s, they had barbed wire fences and all manner of farm-like pens in place in football grounds like Hillsborough and the like. The Hill 16 screen is nothing like any of those.

Somebody once memorably said on this board that when they were building Croke Park they told us that we'd be landlords, but once it was up we were mere patrons. In the last couple of years they've branded us trespassers.

Landlords aren't in the habit of trashing their own premises or hosting out-of-control parties that damage the place and cause safety risks.

Ziggy's totally right in that you meet people on the pitch after an all-ireland that you wouldn't have saw in years. 

Silliest argument I've heard yet. What's wrong with the streets outside the place on the way out and the way in?  I've met plenty of long lost friends there, never felt the need to storm the pitch in the name of an impromptu reunion.

I want to be part of a GAA like it was when I was running to Tyrone games with my da and brothers in the 80's, not one which issues dictates reminiscent of Stalinist Russia,

In Stalinist Russia they sent people to certain death in labour camps in freezing Siberia for just being suspected of not liking the leadership. What's it going to be next?  Comparing the smoking ban to the genocide in Rwanda?

makes a fool of one of its players by forcing a humiliating public apology.

Play me the world's smallest violin.  If you criticise a referee then you should pay a price, especially if you do it through the media. Referees have enough abuse to listen to from the sideline. You think the GAA is going to stand idly by and let people start bitching about refs in the media? I for one applaud the decision to nip this one in the bud. If he kept his big mouth shut in the first place and respected the decisions of the officials then he wouldn't have to apologise. And what of the ref? Was he not "humiliated" by this player's actions?

People are quick enough to paint the GAA in a negative light from outside the association. The last thing we need is people trying to discredit it from the inside. If you're a GAA man and you have nothing positive to say about the association, by all means bitch about it to your friends in the pub afterwards but stay the hell away from a journalist's microphone.

Not a money hungry corporation that tries to fleece its members for some crap concert on the night before the all Ireland as well as charging them e80 for the actual match the next day, just because they know that most would pay it whatever the price.

This "money hungry corporation" as you call it is a non-profit organisation. It doesn't have a board of millionaire directors. It has a tiny paid staff and the vast majority of the work that goes into keeping the thing afloat comes from voluntary effort.  The ESRI even published a report a few years ago lauding the association as the biggest source of volunteering in the country. 

All the money collected is reinvested back into the organisation.  This information is published in their annual financial reports. They're posted on www.gaa.ie. You can look it up. You can read it. You can see where the money comes in, where it goes, and you can see how it spreads thin over so many clubs and county boards throughout the world. You can see the debit and the credit columns. Disinegenuous people are fond of quoting the credit column but they conveniently overlook the debit column, don't they? Has it ever crossed your mind that maintaining a world class stadium like Croke Park might cost a bit of money?  Money that has to come from somewhere and that the place lying empty and unused for 99% of the time would not make a whole lot of sense?  And that's before we even get started on the running of games, the youth programs and all the other work that goes on in the GAA across the globe.

If I see another "grab all association" post again I think I'm going to puke.  I'm sick of this canard being repeated over and over and over again. It's a flat out lie. The GAA is not a "greedy corporation". it is not Exxon. It is not BP. It barely makes enough to get by on. Fact.

[Eamonnca1]

I stayed to the end yesterday having a chat with a dub next to me high up in the hogan, and even though painful to watch for a losing team it is best when suporters stay off the field, we had it ourselves in 2000 and I have long thought it would becomes the norm. the players really enjoy it, and they have the time to really savour the moment with the panel and management who they have trained with all year.

Players? Who gives a toss what they think? It's all about me, dammit!

[tommysmith]

Great points Eamonnca1 and i agree with you.

It's wrong that people seem to think pitch invasions are fine just because it is tradition.

It was wonderful to see the Dublin players able to enjoy the moment after the game yesterday.


Cant believe someone thinks it should be allowed happen so they might meet long lost friends on the pitch 

[LeoMc]

Sitting on the back wall of the Canal Terrace with nothing stopping you from a fatal drop to the ground below was part of what it was to be Irish. It has never been the same since. We have lost all sense of our national identity because of the health and safety Nazis who insisted on that new fangled stadium being built with all its spacious corridors, ample toilets, easy access and intelligible sound system. What happened to the good old days when men would piss up against any old wall at the back of the Cusack stand because the small number of jacks were too full? What happened to the lifting of children over turnstiles to let them fill the place with more people than it was designed to hold? What happened to the tradition of bringing a hang sangwich and flask of tea with you because you knew there would be damn all worth eating in Croke Park? What happened to the crush of the crowds into the tiny passageways before and after the game and the terrified looks of children clinging to their parents' hands for fear that they'd get separated in the throng? Grrrrr!  Christy Cooney is Hitler incarnate! 

Top of the Nally was the way to do it. Now you wouldn't even be let do it in Carrickmore.