ALLIANZ FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION ONE:THE FOOTBALLERS of Dublin and Mayo weren't even born when The Fog, the classic horror by John Carpenter came out. But given that the social lives of all GAA stars seems to involve sitting in watching films, they might well catch it sometime and if so, it is bound to remind them of Saturday night's game.
Just like the film, the mist came rolling in with stunning swiftness. The footballers trundled in at half time after a hearty and hard-hitting first half and by the time they were ready to resume, the pitch at MacHale Park had more or less disappeared.
“It has never happened before,” mused Dublin’s Michael Dara McAuley as he looked out at the heavy blanket.
“We were rarin’ to go there for the second half because there was a good bite to the first. This will wreck the head now having to go home empty handed. It wasn’t dangerous in the first half, but you could see it coming in all right. These things happen.”
They do, but rarely.
Surely, no one in the crowd could remember a sight like this before and for a few moments confusion reigned. The second half was delayed. Upbeat Sawdoctors tunes were played on the sound system to entertain the crowd, but only made everyone more edgy.
Marty Duffy, the referee, came out from the tunnel and fearlessly strode into the white mist, literally into the thick of it. Soon, he had vanished from sight and there were anxious murmurings in the crowd. There were fears that the Civil Defence might have to be sent in to look for the official. Then, he came marching out again. “When I was standing out there in the middle, I couldn’t see the four corners of the field,” he explained later.
The GAA is probably the most implacable body on earth and there are sub-clauses in the rule book to cover everything from alien invasions to political assassinations. A disappeared pitch was not going to alarm them unduly. Stewards were asked to report to end of match positions.
An announcement was made confirming the abandonment of the match. The matter of when it would be replayed would be decided by the good men of the CCCC today. The immediate thought was that it would have made sense to have played it yesterday. The Dublin team was staying down in Castlebar for the night anyway. “We were,” McAuley frowned. “I don’t know what the craic is now. I presume we still are. I must find out.”
So, presumably were many of the travelling fans. The game could have been rescheduled for 2pm, with free admission. But no. Proper channels had to be gone through. “Someone was ringing someone,” Pat Gilroy explained. “I would have been happy enough and it would have been good for fitness as well to test fellas again. Mayo were happy to play it on Sunday too, but we couldn’t so. . .”
Both managers took the setback on the chin and both were magnanimous about the idea of playing it anywhere, anytime. James Horan nodded at the idea of a midweek match or heading to Croke Park.
“Yeah. I wouldn’t mind playing in Croke Park any time. So we will see. It all depends who gets through on Wednesday so we will figure something out. Are we allowed to play on Friday nights, are we? I wouldn’t have a problem with a midweek game, but we will see what they come up with.”
The crowd began to drift away. By now, MacHale Park was like the Marie Celeste of football pitches, especially when they dipped the main floodlights.
Everyone agreed it would have been impossible to play a match out there – unless both teams agreed to stick to an extremely-short passing game. Word went around that Taoiseach Enda Kenny had apologised for the inconvenience caused by the local fog. “Yeah? He’s been apologising for a lot of things lately,” Michael Dara McAuley said brightly. “I wouldn’t blame him for that.”
Ever the pragmatists, both managers held an impromptu training session. Aidan O’Shea stopped on his way out and shook his head. “A weird feeling, a game being over at half time.”
He was asked how he felt the second half might have gone, if we could have seen it. “It probably might have favoured us. We had an extra number and we were playing into our scoring goal in the second half with a numerical advantage. But look, it doesn’t matter. We will go out and do a bit of a training session now and be ready for the next time they come down.” With that, he disappeared.
Uncertainty reigned over the dismissal of James McCarthy. The general feeling was that the Ballymun man had been unlucky to receive a red card.
However, GAA sources last night confirmed that the red card was almost certain to stand. On the plus side for Dublin, however, Eamonn Fennell’s one-match suspension has now been served.
“The game was played, just not completed,” someone declared in MacHale Park on Saturday night.
On that point of note, the stands emptied, leaving the players to run drills in the haze for 20 minutes before they, too, gave up the ghost.
At least people had the consolation of the Six Nations. But news of that fiasco had reached Mayo as people were leaving the ground.
“Ahhhh, the rugby’s gone too,” howled a young man as he peered into an iPhone.
First Castlebar and now Paris – the floodlights out all over Europe.
* A DECISION on the entrance fee for the Mayo-Dublin re-fixture will be taken at the CCCC meeting today. Although the football league goes into recess for three weeks, the fact that a number of players on both sides are Sigerson Cup tied may well force a postponement until the latter stages of the league programme.
A spokesperson for Mayo county board said that the decision was not theirs to make. However, it was felt that the likelihood is that admission for the game would be free or a nominal fee of €5 imposed.
