Harsh or fair?
After talk in the immediate aftermath of the game that it might be moved to Croke Park on Saturday week, it has now been confirmed that the All-Ireland semi-final replay between Mayo and Kerry will take place in the Gaelic Grounds next Saturday at 5pm.
The decision, although it been planned for in advance of yesterday’s epic at headquarters due to the American Football clash between University of Central Florida and Penn State that takes place at Croke Park next weekend, attracted plenty of outcry, particularly from Mayo supporters.
The fact that the venue is closer to Kerry, the fact that the Kerry players are more familiar with playing there than the Mayo players are, reservations about whether Dublin would be subject to similar treatment and the reduced capacity of the Gaelic Grounds relative to Croke Park were just some of the reasons for the fans’ ire, but GAA President Liam O’Neill appeared to have little sympathy when commenting on the matter today.
“The history of it is that people initially question, then they accept the decision and get on with it,” O’Neill is quoted as saying in The Irish Times.
“I’m sure that Mayo are long enough in the game at this level to know that it’s in their best interests to get on with it and play the game and qualify for the final and hopefully, for them, end their barren spell.”
O’Neill may have been right in saying that Mayo fans should ‘get on with it’ but his comments did not exactly go down well with the county’s fans on Twitter, who will argue that they weren’t the only ones to argue that staging the game in Limerick – the first All-Ireland football semi-final to be played outside of Croke Park since 1983 – is hardly an ideal situation.
The fixture is set in stone now, however, and hopefully the two sides can deliver a game similar to what they produced at HQ yesterday and ensure the furore will quickly be forgotten about.
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