Colour clash forces Kerry and Mayo to change

BOTH KERRY and Mayo have been instructed to wear alternative coloured jerseys for their All-Ireland football semi-final in Croke Park on Sunday week – meaning the Munster champions will once again wear navy, while the Connacht champions will line out in red.

The GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee made the decision on the basis of the similarity of their traditional colours – Kerry’s green and gold and Mayo’s green and red – even though they effectively wore those colours in the All-Ireland final meetings of 2006 and 2004.

For Sunday week, however, Kerry will wear a navy kit already used in the quarter-final win over Limerick, and Mayo will wear a predominantly red shirt with green trim, which they also wore previously against London in the opening round of the Connacht championship.

“If the CCCC consider it a clash of colours then they can under rule instruct the teams to wear their alternatives strips,” explained Pat Doherty, the GAA’s national match officials manager. “Okay it hasn’t always happened with these two teams in the past, but that would have been a decision of the CCCC at the time.

“Television would have been a consideration too, but it’s really from the players point of view, so there’s no issue picking out their team-mates, or confusing them with their opponents. It wasn’t requested, but one county did inquire was it likely, and we told them yes. And they are agreeable to it.

“It’s different in the league as well, in that teams can toss for the alternative strip. But under rule if for match purposes the two teams are considered to have a similar strip then both must change.”

“Indeed should Kerry get past Mayo – and Donegal beat Dublin in the other semi-final – another clash of colours would arise for the final, and with that Kerry are likely to remain in their navy kit for all games this summer outside of the Munster championship. Clashes between the counties have been dealt with inconsistently over the years. In the 2004 All-Ireland final, Mayo changed to red with green trim, but traditional colours were again used for the 2006 All-Ireland final, though larger quantities of gold on the new Kerry jersey helped to identify the teams.

Meanwhile, Wexford goalkeeper Anthony Masterson will this evening resume football duties with his club, Castletown, after avoiding a potential eight-week suspension by apologising to the CCCC for his post-match criticism of referee Derek Fahy, following Wexford’s championship exit to Limerick last month.

Masterson submitted his written apology last Friday, and was informed yesterday this was accepted by the CCCC, and with that he was clear to play. He had essentially been told to apologise or else face the suspension, after describing Fahy’s decision to award a controversial point in Limerick’s favour as “an absolute joke,” before adding that that “the whole country knows that he (referee Derek Fahy) is the world’s worst referee . . . ye know it and we know it.”

He will line out with Castletown this evening against Starlights in the county senior football championship, but not without winning the original support and backing of his team for his comments following Wexford’s championship exit.