It’s no Croke Park that’s for sure.
Given that we’re nearly in December and the weather hasn’t been great, there are a good few GAA pitches throughout the country where the state of the playing surface would have deteriorated slightly over the last few weeks.
In most cases, there’s not a whole lot the clubs can do about it but generally it’s not a huge problem as there’s less GAA activity at this time of year.
That said, it’s hard to fathom how a match – a senior football relegation play-off between Fethard and Moycarkey-Borris – was supposed to go ahead over the weekend in Ballyneale in south Tipperary when you take a look at the condition of the playing surface.
Yes, that’s the ball you can just about make out just to the right of centre in the picture below…
@JOEdotie great field the tipp county board fixed a Snr ftball relegation match in 2day that is a football in grass pic.twitter.com/aopVz0SeSK
— Eamon Clohessy (@EamonClohessy) November 23, 2014
The picture was sent into us by Eamon Clohessy, who’s involved with Moycarkey-Borris, while Fethard posted more pictures of the pitch to Tipp FM and to the GPA from their Twitter account.
@TippFMSport @gaelicplayers a few photos of the venue deemed suitable for a Senior Football fixture by @TipperaryGAA pic.twitter.com/H629KuKP7O
— Fethard GAA Club (@FethardGAAClub) November 22, 2014
As it turns out, the referee didn’t allow the game to go ahead and both clubs have registered complaints with the Tipperary County Board and are awaiting a response.
As we said, you don’t expect GAA pitches to be in their best nick at this time of year but surely the teams and players involved deserved better than this?
Hat-tip to Eamon Clohessy for sending this one our way
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