Mayo have asked the GAA’s Central Competition Controls’ Committee not to fix their neutral All-Ireland SFC group stage game for Croke Park.
Mayo are taking on Dublin on the weekend June 15/16 in the third round of the group stages.
Each team has a home game, an away game and a neutral game as part of their campaign
Roscommon and Cavan are also in the group, with Mayo having beaten Cavan at home last weekend before travelling to Hyde Park to play Roscommon in two weekends time.
The neutral clash with Dublin is Mayo’s final game in the group and according to the Mayo News, Mayo chair Seamus Tuohy told delegates at last night’s Mayo county board meeting that a request has been made not to play Dublin in Croke Park.
“What we’ve asked for is that the game is not in Croke Park.
“We want a neutral venue. We have made representations, but that is as far as we can take it,” he said.
Dublin played their neutral game against Sligo last year in Breffni Park in Cavan so even without Mayo’s request, the game could have been played in a venue such as Dr Hyde Park or the Gaelic Grounds.
Mayo lost an All-Ireland quarter final to Kerry in the Gaelic Grounds in 2014 and have played there a number of times in recent years, against Cork in 2023, against Galway in 2019 and against Limerick in 2018, winning each time.
Dublin defeated Mayo in last year’s All-Ireland quarter final in Croke Park, on a final score-line of 2-17 to 0-11. Meath manager Colm O’Rourke had a different take on the Croke Park debate when his team played Dublin there in this year’s Leinster final.
“When is the right time to go to Croke Park? he asked.
“There’s none, you have to just get on with it and start winning big games there. That’s what defines you as a man, as a footballer, as a warrior in Meath just to be able to go to Croke Park and beat Dublin and take them on toe-to-toe.
“Ask any young fella in Meath what do you want to do? You want to go to Croke Park, play on the Meath team and play against Dublin in a big game,” he said.
