McNamara steps down from Clare job

GER O’LOUGHLIN is expected to be ratified as the new Clare senior hurling manager after Mike McNamara stepped down from the position last night. In a hard-hitting letter, read out by county secretary Pat Fitzgerald, McNamara announced his decision to step aside at last night’s Clare County Board meeting.

McNamara had met with up with many of the players who had formed his 2009 squad last week, but when the talks did not put an end to the divisions in the camp, McNamara was left with no choice but to step down.

While O’Loughlin was proposed to fill the now vacant position at last night’s meeting, many of the delegates are believed to have expressed the wish to consult their clubs, and so the two-time All-Ireland medal winner has to wait until tomorrow night’s annual convention to be ratified as the new county senior hurling manager.

The two-time All Star – who won five county senior hurling titles with Clarecastle – was a county selector under Cyril Lyons in 2003, and led Limerick’s Adare to three county titles in a row.

Meanwhile, Croke Park stadium director Peter McKenna has strongly rejected a suggestion from Dublin County Board chairman Gerry Harrington that controlled pitch invasions should be allowed at the stadium.

McKenna has described Harrington’s recent comments as “ill-informed” after the Dublin chief insisted officials should let fans onto the pitch instead of battling in vain against the ongoing problem.

Harrington proposed a line of stewards marching towards the centre of the pitch, with fans following them in an orderly fashion, and said such a move would minimise the risk of injury to patrons.

Cork native Harrington also described the practice of trying to stop pitch invasions as “nonsensical” but McKenna has insisted Harrington’s idea would merely exacerbate the existing issue.

“Gerry’s comments are ill-informed,” said McKenna said. “Without getting into a war of words, I’m certainly going to use the next opportunity to brief Gerry on some of the factual situations here. In Manchester four weeks ago, a crowd were waiting for a concert, they ran through and a number of people were injured on the back of that.”

Harrington expressed his view that allowing fans on to the pitch would only affect the terrace and lower tiers of the Canal End, Hogan Stand and Cusack Stand.

But McKenna revealed that a dangerous “counter flow” is created when supporters dashing down from the upper tiers of the various stands come into contact with people vacating the lower sections.

McKenna also insisted the pitch surface itself cannot cope with thousands of spectators and he insisted: “Gerry’s proposal would only exacerbate the problem.”

McKenna has also revealed that Croke Park continues to deal with a litany of cases from spectators claiming injury as a result of pitch invasions at the stadium. He said that settlements in these individual cases can range from anywhere between €10,000 and substantial six-figure sums.

A frustrated McKenna lamented: “That’s real money that goes out of the system and you have to say that it’s a needless waste. Paying insurance claims and repairing damage are costs that all add up and it’s money that’s flowing out.”

McKenna vowed the fight against pitch invasions will continue in the new year and he urged people to think carefully about their match-day behaviour.

“Once people realise the inherent dangers and if somebody gets hurt, on our heads be it all. We had a couple of incidents this year but it just adds more to the resolve to try and stop this.

“It’s about educating people because thousands of people coming onto the pitch is an accident waiting to happen. We have tried a lot of things but that just means that you have to try harder, be more creative and more resourceful.

“The fact that we haven’t been successful is not a reason to give up because the problem hasn’t gone away. It’s as much as issue now as it was a year or two ago.

“We cannot lose our resolve and it’s about not giving up the challenge. It’s also about informing people and giving them all of the facts.

“We’re not out to be spoilsports, quite the opposite, because this is a deep-rooted tradition that works well with a small crowd.”

You don’t want to stop a small club with people watching from coming on afterwards; there’s nothing dangerous about that but with 35,000 trying to come on, the whole mechanism of how the building operates is in a “panic” situation.”