Why isn’t Division 2A final in Croker?

WE’LL admit to having an ambivalent enough relationship with Croke Park – the venue rather than the administration.

It’s not that we don’t think it’s a fantastic stadium. It is. When it’s full to the brim there’s few better places in the world to watch a match. When it’s not though it can be a pretty soulless place. Seagulls squawking, echoes hammering around the place, the voices of players and coaches as clear as day.

We question too the GAA’s desire to play so many fixtures there late in the season. Does the neutral round of the Super 8s really need to be in Croke Park? Would not provincial grounds be more than adequate? Better as a matter of fact, less burdensome on fans to travel, more likely to generate an atmosphere?

They would and, yet at the risk of completely contradicting ourselves, sometimes even a crowd of a few thousand people in Croke Park can be magical. Think back a few weeks to the club finals at intermediate and junior level. The place was positively rocking for Charleville despite only a few thousand people being in attendance.

Those club finals are the exceptions which prove the rule. Who would deny those clubs the opportunity to play in Croke Park? Who would deny Leitrim the chance to play their Division 4 final there later this month?

There won’t be a massive crowd – although there could well be a substantial Leitrim diaspora there – but on that day of all days it’ll hardly matter. Why then does the same honour not accrue to the lower division hurling counties?

Why is Kerry and Westmeath’s league final in Ennis and not on Jones’ Road? Ennis is a great little venue, pack a few thousand people into the main stand just metres away from the pitch and no doubt there will be a great atmosphere, but it’s not Croke Park is it?

It’s decidedly an off Broadway production and that doesn’t really seem fair now does it?