Managers call for sure footing at Croke Park

Croke Park surface: Croke Park's playing surface has been criticised by a number of intercounty managers. The men in charge of the last three All-Ireland winners, Mickey Harte of Tyrone, Armagh's Joe Kernan and John O'Mahony, who recently stepped down after seven years with Galway, all expressed unhappiness with the pitch.

They were in Croke Park yesterday to attend a function organised by Lucozade to present awards for breakthrough achievements in Gaelic games. Clare won the hurling category for their All-Ireland titles in 1995 and '97, the county's first in eight decades. Armagh and Tyrone shared the football prize for their first All-Ireland victories in 2002 and 2003.

"Players are conscious that their footing seems to give way when you don't expect it to - on wet days and dry days," said Harte. "You don't expect on dry days to be slipping so much. There's a wide range of footwear nowadays for playing the game but still they're having difficulty so I think it's something that needs to be looked into.

"I would be aware that the GAA authorities would be taking note of the situation and I think there will be some kind of inquiry into why it's happening so much."

Last week stadium manager Peter McKenna announced that he would be inviting intercounty team representatives to discuss criticisms of the Croke Park pitch surface.

McKenna also said that substantial work had been done during last year's close season to soften the ground and that this was empirically proven by readings taken with the same equipment used by racecourses to determine the going.

Harte acknowledged that there appeared to have been improvement in that regard. "There wouldn't seem to be as much talk about sore feet or blisters on the feet. Whether this is because people have adjusted with better footwear I don't know the answer."

O'Mahony, however, felt that the hardness of the surface was still an issue for his players, who have twice played at Croke Park this year.

"You have a situation where if they wear the moulded boots they're slipping all over the place and if they wear their six-stud they've sore calves and feet afterwards.

"From what I gather Croke Park authorities are aware of this but I wouldn't be an expert on it. Even on Saturday it looked as if the ball didn't have a true bounce. A stadium like this needs a better surface. I know they've based this on soccer pitches but there seems to be some problem."

Nonetheless he echoed a point made by McKenna, that players sometimes wear the wrong footwear. "You saw yesterday (Sunday) Derry changing their boots. From a footwear point of view there's so much choice. An issue that crops up with us - I don't know if it's just us - would be the blades rather than studs. Our experience is that we get more injuries with the blades - and I don't want a row with the boot manufacturers."

Choice of footwear has become a major issue for team managements. Aside from the bewildering array of boots, some teams provide specially made socks for players so that they are protected against the surface when wearing studs that give better grip.

Kernan raised another difficulty. As well as the bounce, which he said "tends to run away from players," he mentioned the problems of place-kicking off the ground.

"Oisín McConville would say that it's become very difficult, that's it's nearly impossible to get a toe underneath the ball when you're kicking it. I know they're looking into it but something needs to be done."

The consultative process worked last year with the area of the field in the corner between the Canal End and the Cusack Stand, which, because of an algae growth, was holding water. The problem was sorted out.

Croke Park do offer a consultancy service with their ground staff if any teams want advice on the appropriate footwear but none of the managers had availed of it.

"We did talk to the authorities about that piece of the pitch (Canal End) last year. We haven't talked about that (hard playing surface) yet but it's something to go into in the close season. You can't throw the book at anyone because of this. People try to do their best and provide the top facilities but maybe someone needs to find the problem before doing something about it."

On an unrelated matter Harte said that he was optimistic that Peter Canavan would not opt to retire from intercounty football. Canavan missed virtually the entire year since the All-Ireland victory 11 months ago with an ankle injury and was only able to make a couple of appearances as a replacement.

"The vibes I'm getting from Peter," said Harte, "is that he intends staying there next year and if he gets the chances to get himself as fit as he'd like to be then that can only be a bonus."