Armagh fallout irks O'Mahony

Galway football manager John O'Mahony has criticised the GAA over the late postponement of his team's league match with Armagh last Sunday. He is also critical of the possibility of having to play the match before Christmas - which is the stated objective of the GAA's Games Administration Committee.

"We were waiting for the referee," he said, "and he told us that he had been expecting the match to be called off earlier. But nothing seemed in place to monitor the situation and I wasn't aware of any alternative pitch in Armagh having been lined up. I'm not blaming the Armagh officials - it's up to Croke Park to sort out these details and there was no one there to take responsibility."

O'Mahony and his panel had left Galway at Saturday lunchtime, and he acknowledges nothing could have been done to spare them the journey and that the decision to call it off was justified. But he feels it should have happened early enough to allow the team to start the journey home and spare the supporters the wasted trip.

"Our players were left until lunchtime on Sunday and we didn't know until we got to the pitch in Armagh. I know the weather came late but the game could have been called off that morning and saved five or six hundred of our supporters from travelling.

"The pitch was in a poor state. It looked green but you were leaving footprints on it. Players came out for a warm-up and some wanted to play, but the conditions were dangerous and it wasn't worth getting a broken leg to get the game out of the way."

O'Mahony was informed yesterday by the Galway football board that it had been informed that the match was likely to be refixed for this weekend or the following.

Sunday would see a clash with the Leinster club final in which two Armagh players, Kieran McGeeney and Des Mackin, line out with Dublin champions Na Fianna. He is unhappy at the proposal.

"The weekend was the best argument you ever had for the new league proposals (playing the season between April and October), and if we go up again before Christmas who's to say the same thing won't happen.

"What are the procedures? Who is meant to monitor the pitch? We left on Saturday, got home at eight o'clock on Sunday and 12 hours later we're told to play next week or the week after. Players have organised to go away and have already lost a weekend."

Arrangements for the postponed matches have not yet been made by the GAC although the committee secretary, Sean O Laoire, said that he hoped to play them before the Christmas break.