Páraic Duffy defends Roscommon Dublin venue change

GAA director general Páraic Duffy has defended the late change of venue for Sunday's Allianz Football League clash between Roscommon and Dublin, describing it as a "no-win situation", and after that "a matter of opinion".

Despite concerns about the state of the Dr Hyde Park pitch all week, the decision to move the game to Carrick-on- Shannon in Leitrim was only made at 9.30am on Sunday morning, just four and a half hours before throw-in: by then many Dublin supporters, especially those travelling by train, were already bound for Roscommon, although Duffy said Roscommon faced “a huge call” in deciding if and when to move the game.

“The pitch was inspected on Friday evening, and was absolutely playable,” said Duffy, outlining the exact chain of events. “A lot of work had been done on it during the week. Obviously there were concerns about the weather forecast, and what might happen over the weekend, and it was inspected again on Saturday, by an intercouty referee.

“There were doubts expressed, there was water on the pitch, and it all depended on what happened overnight. There was consideration given at that stage whether the game should be changed. Having said that, changing the game was a big call. For Roscommon it was a huge game, the All-Ireland champions at home, and they wanted to play it at home for all kinds of reasons, the local community, etc...

“The decision was taken then to inspect again on the Sunday morning, again by an intercouty referee. It rained overnight, unfortunately, and the decision was taken to move the game. Okay, maybe you could make the point the game should have been moved sooner, but for the people of Roscommon it was a huge call.”

Part of the problem, however, was that the only train from Dublin to Roscommon had left Heuston at 8am that morning: again Duffy defended how that situation was handled, with the Roscommon county board also clarifying that there was no charge for the special bus service put on from Roscommon to Carrick-on-Shannon

“In terms of how it was dealt it,” said Duffy, “to be fair to the communications, it was dealt with very fast. There was only one train left Roscommon for Dublin on Sunday morning, arrived at 10am, and members of our staff did contact Iarnród Éireann to see could the get people from Roscommon to Carrick-on-Shannon, 26, 26 miles away. They couldn’t, and that’s fair enough, so we took to organise two buses, contacted hotels and local B&B’s to tell people there that would be available. In fact the two buses weren’t even full. One was, the other wasn’t. And the game went ahead in Carrick-on-Shannon, and the people there did a fantastic job, a voluntary effort on their part, as they have no full-time staff.

“Of course we could have made a decision to pull it out of there on Saturday, and if it turned out Hyde Park was playable on Sunday, people would say why didn’t you wait until the Sunday. So you can’t win in this situation, and I don’t think too many people were inconvenienced. Some were, not too many.”

Duffy, speaking at the opening of the GAA’s National Games Development Centre at the National Sports Campus at Abbotstown, also warned against making any precedent from Sunday’s situation, such as games considered “doubtful” being moved 24 hours in advance: “You could argue that. The long-term issue is we need to rectify the situation at Hyde Park, and we’ve had meetings with Roscommon on that already. But I think in the circumstances you were in a no-win situation. It’s a matter of opinion after that.

“These all require judgements and people can form their own opinion. I personally feel in the circumstances it was handled pretty well, I wouldn’t criticise Roscommon, our own CCCC and I certainly wouldn’t criticise Leitrim.”