Padraig’s pitch is perfect...
Páirc Uí Chaoimh a no-go for Rossies clash
CORK’S final-round Super 8 clash against Roscommon will not be played at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. The Cork board confirmed yesterday it had given the green light for work to commence on the laying of a new pitch next week, almost a fortnight prior to Ronan McCarthy’s team being scheduled to take on the Connacht champions in a potentially season-defining final-round game. That game, which will take place on the weekend of August 3/4, will now be played at Cork’s second ground Páirc Uí Rinn, after the pitch contractors insisted that work had to begin next week. ‘I acknowledge and share the disappointment of many that our Senior Footballers cannot play their home All-Ireland quarter-final game against Roscommon in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, and if there was any way in which the match could have been accommodated without risk to the future success of the new pitch, it would have been done. ‘However, our focus has to be on safeguarding our pitch for all our teams far into the future,’ Cork chairperson Tracy Kennedy insisted yesterday. The importance of
the Roscommon match will be determined by results this weekend where if Cork defeat Tyrone, it would mean that a win in their final match could see them into the All-Ireland semi-finals. However, if both teams lose — and Roscommon face a daunting challenge against AllIreland champions Dublin — it will reduce that final game to a dead rubber. The GAA confirmed yesterday the details of the final round of Super 8s fixtures, with the Mayo/Donegal and Meath/ Kerry games taking place on Saturday, August 3 with 6pm throw-in times, while the Group 2 games, including the headline Tyrone/Dublin tie as well as Cork v Roscommon, will have a 4pm throw-in the following afternoon. Meanwhile, Kildare senior football manager Cian O’Neill has stepped down after four years in charge, admitting that ‘frustratingly we didn’t always reach our potential as a group’. Following his role as Kerry selector in Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s backroom team, O’Neill guided Kildare to backto-back league promotions in his first two seasons, getting the team from Division 3 to the top flight. ‘As a proud Kildare man, it was an honour and privilege to have been given the opportunity to work with an exceptional group of players,’ he said in a statement. The next question is who will take over, with the names of former player Glenn Ryan being linked to the role, along with last year’s All-Ireland winning U20 manager Davy Burke, exMonaghan manager Malachy O’Rourke and former Kerry senior manager Jack O’Connor.