Perhaps the emboldened GAA population is just enjoying sticking it to The Man. Perhaps they’re still, even after all the strifes, being persecuted.
The biggest problem with a lot of the issues that have surfaced this year is that they have been so avoidable. They’ve been so avoidable and it’s the normal, lay person suffering the consequences every time.
The latest is the fixing of the Clare and Galway replay for Thurles.
Over 51,000 hurling fanatics travelled from the west for Saturday evening’s thriller. They braved torrential roads and enjoyed game day under the pouring rain and, after what unfolded in that first semi-final, the demand for the second and final outing is even greater now.
The accommodation, however, less modest.
The demand goes up, the supply goes down.
Back to this again https://t.co/W94zRHgL4Q
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 28, 2018
So, despite murmurs that the game would be moved to headquarters from Thurles, the GAA are ploughing on.
If the match was to take place on Saturday, it’d clash with the Galway footballers’ home Super 8 game.
If it was on Sunday – which it is – it can’t be played at Croke Park because Dublin footballers are playing there – in their home venue, back to another problem.
So all that brought people to the next logical question. Why not the Monday? Why not the Bank Holiday Monday at Croker?
Clarifying that query for Clare FM, the GAA explained that they avoid Bank Holiday fixtures if they can.
“We don’t use Bank Holidays unless we have to because of traffic etc. Also, it’s not a Bank Holiday in the north.”
There would, of course, be interest from Gaels in the north to attend such games and if they were deprived that opportunity – Monday isn’t a Bank Holiday in six counties – there’s another grievance to deal with.
But the fact that Clare and Galway natives are being deprived is a more pressing matter right now and, as sound as it is for the GAA to consider the north, they didn’t seem to care too much last year when Roscommon and Mayo were sent to Croke Park on the Bank Holiday Monday.
Besides, those from Derry, Antrim, Armagh, Down, Tyrone and Fermanagh would have a tough enough task, like everyone else, getting a ticket for Thurles.
In response to a @ClareFM query, the #GAA say because it's not a Bank Holiday in the North next Monday, they couldn't fix Clare v Galway in Croke Park on that day.
"We don't use Bank Holidays unless we have to because of traffic etc. Also, it's not a Bank Holiday in the north."
— Derrick Lynch (@DLynchSport) July 30, 2018
The GAA might argue that they had to use the Monday last year in the Mayo/Roscommon instance because Dublin played Monaghan on the Saturday and an All-Ireland semi-final in the hurling took place on the Sunday.
But just over 39,000 people made the journey from Roscommon and Mayo for the match on the Monday so it wasn’t, as the excuse would presumably suggest, a necessity.
Inconsistencies with the administration won’t come as a great deal of a surprise to many but the biggest slap in the face is that none of the decision-makers seem to understand that they should “have to” move the game to the Monday in this case anyway because the current venue cannot satisfy the demand.
More people – your people – want to watch the game than is being allowed and there’s an alternative available. More people will be screwed over than there needs to be.
If that isn’t a reason to “have to” act, what is?
