Cooney says invasion was 'sad'

NEWS ROUND-UP:GAA PRESIDENT Christy Cooney has described as "sad" and "disappointing" the pitch invasion which ultimately won out over the stadium stewards after Sunday's All-Ireland hurling final at Croke Park – but vowed the GAA would press ahead with their intention to make such crowd encroachments a thing of the past.

Despite extensive plans and appeals to end the traditional pitch invasion, the GAA were left red-faced on Sunday when forced to resort to Plan B: “The plans didn’t come to pass and it is very disappointing they didn’t come to pass because we put enormous efforts over the last week to try move this on,” said Cooney.

“We worked very closely with the Gardai, who were outstandingly supportive, and our own stewards in trying to create a situation that was going to be the benefit of all. We thought we were there, after five minutes it looked extremely good, but then we had a break in from Hill 16 and it is impossible to control that.

“We are certainly not going to endanger our own stewards and when people wouldn’t carry out our request it was very disappointing. The sad thing about it is that they were putting themselves in danger and the young kids that were on the pitch and in some cases their own kids that they were bringing on to the pitch. The other sad point was that we were going to have a fabulous extravaganza at the end of the game and supporters missed the opportunity of seeing that – what would have been truly spectacular.

“Also seeing their teams parading around the field with the cup. The players had to go through the tunnel underneath the Hogan Stand, they never got out to the supporters. Everybody lost out, in my view. But it’s not going away.”

Cooney said the plans would be reviewed and it was very much the GAA’s intention to prevent a similar pitch invasion after the football final on Sunday week: “We are going to put every effort into getting it right. Will we achieve that for the football? I’m not sure, but we are going to sit down and have a full review with the Gardaí and make whatever decisions we believe are right.”

Cooney was speaking in Croke Park at the launch of the Kilmacud Crokes All-Ireland Football Sevens, which take place on Saturday week. As part of that launch, Kilmacud All-Ireland club winning forward Mark Vaughan spoke of his disappointment at not featuring for Dublin this summer due to a back injury.

“I’ve had back problems for the last couple of years,” he explained. “I think last year and being on the go for 15 months took its toll. I struggled the first couple of months with Dublin and didn’t get back from there. It went in April and I knew that I was in trouble with the injury. I thought I’d be able to train through it and I just wasn’t getting there.

“Any lad who plays in Dublin wants to play for Dublin. The thing is how will I bounce back from this. I have to put my head down and regroup and hopefully get in the squad again next year.”

Sunday’s All-Ireland hurling final claimed an impressive 68 per cent share of the television audience. And 44 per cent of those viewing TV on Saturday evening watched the soccer match between the Republic of Ireland and Cyprus. The World Cup qualifier was watched by an average 633,000 viewers, while the game between Kilkenny and Tipperary attracted the highest viewership for three years, with an average audience of 771,000 people, peaking at 912,000.