GAA:Kerry and Mayo will don their alternate jerseys at the behest of the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee when they meet in the All-Ireland Senior football semi-final on Sunday week at Croke Park. The CCCC has decided that there would be a clash if the counties were to sport their traditional colours.
Kerry will wear a navy kit they used in the quarter-final win over Limerick while their opponents, the Connacht champions will take the field in a predominantly red shirt with green trim, which they wore previously against London.
Clashes between the counties have been dealt with inconsistently over the years. In the 1981 All-Ireland semi-final the Kingdom were in blue and Mayo in white. Fifteen years later both were allowed to wear their normal strips when they met in the semi-finals but for the following year’s final Kerry wore jerseys with a wider hoop to aid differentiation.
In the 2004 All-Ireland final, Mayo changed to red, but neither county had introduced a new kit by the following year when they met in the quarter-final, so no change was ordered. 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.