Meet the crack Croke Park team who ensure fans are on to a winner for final

THE focus remains on the footballing gladiators as we approach the AllIreland final – but in the bowels of the Croke Park Colosseum, a year’s work is reaching its climax too.

And for the 2,500 people who’ll work in the stadium on the day, the end result holds almost as much importance as it does for the winning captain who walks up the steps of the Hogan Stand.

Executive chef Ruairi Boyce will be too busy on Sunday to see what unfolds between Dublin and Mayo. Mr Boyce looks after the corporate and premium sections, as well as the burger and hot-dog stands dotted around the stadium.

He has ordered 500kg of beef, 600 chickens and around 150 salmon to feed the masses. “We like to incorporate food from the competing counties,” he said.

“For the hurling, we had cheese from Waterford, muscles from Oranmore in Galway. Most of our vegetables are grown around the north county Dublin area and for Mayo, we’re getting crab in.”

Hospitality and catering manager Conor Merry expects 45,000 pints to be sold, along with 15,000 burgers and hot dogs, and 9,000 portions of chips.

“If Dublin are playing, we sell a lot of Guinness, if Cork are playing, we won’t – they wouldn’t be as fond of Guinness,” he said. “Mayo are good buyers [of food] – they have to drive home.”

Mr Merry will have 1,100 staff at his disposal come match day, 300 of whom are from the local area, which is a company policy.

Meanwhile, event controller Elaine Casey will have a bird’s eye view of proceedings, making sure everything in the stands runs smoothly.

Ms Casey expects the Dublin enclave on Hill 16 to be invaded by a swathe of green and red, but insists it’ll be nothing to worry about.

“There’s a risk everywhere, but if you look at the hurling final, there was great craic between the fans because they were intermingling – you can hear them chanting at each other,” she said.

Stadium director Peter McKenna has met with representatives of Dublin supporters twice over the past six weeks or so, regarding concerns for safety on Hill 16.

“We would see Hill 16 as an iconic part of Dublin – up there with O’Connell Street and the GPO,” he said.

“The important thing for us is to preserve the terrace as an integral part of what Croke Park is about. It is unique in a European context to have a stadium so big – the third biggest in Europe – and to have a terrace that size, 13,000. There’ll be lots of counter-singing [between supporters] but it never gets negative. It’s because that is not in the GAA nature.”

And last but not least, there’s the small matter of the playing surface – the most used high-level pitch in Europe at around 90 games each year.

The GAA has come in for criticism for staging concerts in the stadium during the Championship, including from Dublin boss Jim Gavin. But groundsman Stuart Wilson said months of preparation goes into delivering a pristine surface.

“A section of the pitch is relaid, you bring in new turf, but one thing that happens with that turf is that it’s tried and tested for months before we have concerts in Croke Park,” he said.

So, the Colosseum is well prepared – now we wait and see if Mayo can topple Jim Gavin’s Dublin dynasty – or if they’ll be fed to the lions.