Fahey says staging decider in Thurles 'absolutely disgraceful'

UNDER-21 HURLING ALL-IRELAND FINAL: THERE ARE two schools of thought on tomorrow evening's All-Ireland under-21 hurling final.

One is that this outrageously talented Tipperary side will ride the wave of last Sunday’s senior success and flow past Galway. The other is that the disgruntled visitors will emerge from the long-grass having cleverly adopted the persona of Christians entering the Lion-infested Semple Stadium.

The long-serving secretary of the Galway hurling board John Fahey branded the decision to play the match in Thurles during this “festival week” for the town as “absolutely disgraceful”.

More than 30,000 locals are expected to show up, with a ticket van following the Liam MacCarthy Cup around the county this week, while Galway are struggling to convince a traditionally poor travelling support to make the trip for what many in Tipperary already see as the icing on an already delicious cake that they have been devouring all week.

“(GAA Director General) Páraic Duffy promised us that the CCCC would revisit it, but they never met and yet Páraic Duffy will tell the public, through the media, and they will be gullible enough to see that the CCCC are totally responsible for the fixture,” said Fahey. “They only made the fixture in Thurles because they were told to do it. That’s a fact.

“Can you imagine that nine people, representatives of the four provinces, would sit down with two teams, Galway and Tipperary, in an All-Ireland final and that any man would suggest Thurles as the proper venue for this? Could you comprehend that happening? Absolutely disgraceful.

“There is total disenchantment within the county with it being held in Semple. We are trying to encourage people and we are going to the clubs to try and get them to buy tickets, but there are five players on the panel from my club so I know the interest is not there. We can’t do much more.

“It’s a festival week in Thurles, to be honest, and fair play to them, we all applauded them in Galway for what they did last Sunday, but it should have been played in Limerick or Tullamore or Portlaoise.”

Conceding that the decision had been made several months back to host the All-Ireland camogie finals in Croke Park this Sunday, Fahey still believes GAA headquarters would have been the ideal setting, alongside the camogie finals.

“The GAA adopted a policy of integration a few years ago that was to integrate all the strands of the GAA which included the participation of ladies. Part of the integration was to play the camogie and All-Ireland under-21 hurling finals together.

“We played in 2007 in Croke Park against Dublin and we had no problem playing Dublin there as Croke Park is not a Dublin home venue. It has nothing to do with Dublin teams or their county board.

“It is ironic that when Galway are in the senior camogie and under-21 finals that the decision has been made to break them up. Does an under-21 All-Ireland final not deserve a Sunday? We would be delighted to be heading to Croke Park.

“Mr Cooney has declared Thurles is the venue for all under-21 hurling finals, but suppose there is a draw, are we to go back to Thurles next weekend?”

Richie Cummins and Niall Quinn have sufficiently recovered from ankle and foot injuries to take their place in the Galway attack. Wing back Sylvie Óg Linnane is also considered fit enough to ensure David Burke leads out the same team that out-classed Leinster champions Dublin 2-14 to 1-10 in the semi-final. Quinn’s selection at centre forward is crucial considering he registered 1-2 against Dublin.

Tipperary manager Ken Hogan has delayed announcing a line-up as full back John Coghlan was before last night’s Central Hearing Committee in an attempt to have his one-match suspension, handed down after the referee from the Antrim semi-final victory Tony Carroll was advised to consult video evidence.

On Carroll’s recommendation, the yellow card was upgraded to red and that meant a four-week suspension.

GALWAY:K Finnegan; D Connolly, P Gordan, G O'Halloran; N Donoghue, D Burke, S Óg Linnane; J Coen, B Daly; J Regan, N Quinn, E Forde; R Cummins, G Burke, G Kelly.