It’s been announced that this year’s Connacht final will, for the second year running, be held at Roscommon’s Hyde Park. The decision, which was made at this evening’s Connacht Council meeting, was confirmed a few minutes ago on Twitter by @MayoGAA.
The delay in making the announcement – which appears to have been due to the need to confirm maximum capacity levels at the relevant grounds – gave rise to a fair bit of discussion in recent days. Notable in this regard is the hammer-and-tongs debate that’s been going on at gaaboard.com where a number of Rossies, lads who ostensibly had no dog in this fight at all at all, were getting more that a bit hot under the collar at the thought that their neutral hosting of the event was in doubt.
They can all relax now, however, in the knowledge that this particular circus will definitely be heading in their direction on July 15th. By all accounts, the capacity of the Roscommon venue – which was cut to under 20,000 in the so-called Slattery Report on health and safety issues at GAA grounds late last year – magically rose to just over 25,000 in the last few days, which meant that it would, after all, be in a position to hold the final. And hold it it now will where we’ll be aiming of a repeat of 1997, when we beat Leitrim in Castlebar in the semi and the Magpies in Hyde Park in the final.
Mick Slattery–a good decent Tipperary man.
Played many a game of 110 in college in Galway with him.
In a way I’m glad, I’d of hated it to be given to McHale Park just to make money, we’d be as bad as the Dubs then.
Digits, that ground mchale park has to be payed for you know and they shoud,t be giving up home field advantage anyways to the sligo,s n leitrims of this world.thats ther problem if they dont have a ground that can hold 25,000.
No problem with Hyde Park, we have a great record there, six final wins since 1985. Still have great memories of Jimmy Burke’s goal in 1989!
I would hate to be in the situation that other counties in Leinster are in, where Dublin always have home advantage – they have only played 1 away game in 7 years – just because it draws the most money. As that brilliant article that An Spailpín Fánach wrote this week says, all counties are equal, and we shouldn’t have a situation like Dublin where some counties are more equal than others and money becomes the deciding factor. Finals should be in neutral venues anyway.
Sounds like you are not happy with the Hyde park final Willie Joe? us getting a home final v Sligo was alot of paper talk i feel & anyways it’s better than Pearse stadium.
Didn’t we also win minor in 1997 so another double is on the cards in Hyde park.
Sure thats the venue now, will have to get on with it. I strongly disagree with a lot of the posts as regards the venue though, “finals should be in neutral venues anyway” no they shouldn’t not in the context of connacht football championship, it’s just grand the way it is with the arrangement Mayo/Galway/ross have of home and away basis.
Christ the thought of never having a CF with Mayo in Castlebar again, thats a horrible thought.
I think a lot of people could be surprised at the turnout for this, could be even a shortage of tickets, of course people will say i’m talking rubbish and it won’t even near sell out, well if Ross beat Galway in the minor, make sure you have your ticket got well in advance is my advice, them ravin lunatics for underage teams will bring 8/9k to their own patch for a CF.
Can’t see how you could infer that, Mayomagic – I’m not too bothered one way or another (in large part as I’ll be away on hols when the final is played). As the agreement is there and Hyde Park is able to host it then I guess that’s all there is to it.
I really enjoyed the final last year in Hyde Park. I think it is a great venue. However I hope the Gardai are more prominent this year in controlling the traffic.
Minors will be interesting . A loss here would be fatal. Indeed watched the Rossies lose to Tipp last year and was impressed. Think we will get a bit of a beating here.
Not so sure that a loss here would be fatal – while they were far from impressive in beating Sligo -(1) we still have the back door, (2) the Rossies have yet to beat Galway
and that’ll be no pushover.
Forgot that Sam, Alzheimers setting in…
john as a matter of interest have you seen the mayo minors play this season
dont orget to take your litter home with you lads from the hyde after all theres enough crap in ros as it is up mayo
Indeed I have raz, I get a bad feeling about your question , maybe I have stepped on a corn or something. Look to be honest what I saw didn’t overly impress me. having said that I acknowledge that at my prime I wouldn’t be fit to scrape the muck of number 30s boot. However I am slightly deflated at the standard overall of player we seem to be putting through. I think the manager himself alluded to the power of Summerhill and St Attractas of Tubberacurry. I find those comparisons strange. In my day Summerhill were very good but mayo minors never factored them into any equation. Good job we didnt take the might of Jarlaths serious or we would never have won anything in Connacht.
No bad feelin about the question at all john .. all I would say is that to be fair they probably played way short of what they are capable off playin. Its about getting it right on the day. I for one no there’s more to come from these lads and that,s not maybe,,,, I can see your point about the standard dropping but we have failled badly for a lot a years now ..1985 was the last title and some great players have don the red and green since. I am lookin forward to the 15th of july”’
Of course we do not know what happened in regard to fixing the match in Roscommon. But it seems that health and safety regulations were changed almost overnight to suit Hyde Park ( capacity increased by almost 22% overnight). That seems strange, why the delay in fixing it so? I hope it all goes well for the Rossies
suits me fine that its in roscommon. Pearse stadium is an absolute nightmare to get out of. Its a scandal that Tuam is left sitting when it would have been an ideal place for Connaught finals.
Well if there is a ticket shortage, its the wrong decision. It should of been McHale park, if they’re expecting 30k approx.
Time will tell but i’m hoping Galway beat the ross tmrw night for two reasons, shortage of tickets and the Rossies will back Sligo in the senior game very vocally too.
John
Going back to the minors; we always factored in the might of ‘Jarlaths’..to our advantage (approx. five of our own Minors always came from there)
David,
You appear to want to drive in the front gate of Pearse Stadium and park your car. How far do you walk in Dublin on semi-final and all Ireland Day? Pearse Stadium has twenty four exit gates and is not difficult to get out of as you say.
Sean Burke 30K for a Sligo v Mayo game are you serious? even if Roscommon minors reach the final they will only bring 1 or 2k remember we did play them in 08,09,10 & last year & they didn’t bring 8/9k then.
Hyde park 25,000 that’s fine for this type of final & will be no ticket shortage.
It’s not getting out of the ground that’s the problem, Peter, it’s trying to get out of the city. 2009 was a complete nightmare, the city was jam-packed with other stuff on and it seemed that they couldn’t be arsed to put a single Guard on point duty. It took me nearly as long to get clear of Galway that evening as it did to get back to Dublin once I finally got away. On the evidence of that day at least, Connacht finals don’t seem to count for much in Galway.
peter,
i can only assume you were not at the mayo galway final 3 years ago, it was beyond savage, hours to get out. i was on a motorcycle so it took me a half hour to weave through the traffic but others in cars were hours and swore never again. I might do it again but would head for the pubs and a hotel in galway for the night.
Big differance comparing croker to mchale park n tha dublin more or less always use croker n they back tha up with tha crowds they bring even outside leinster, it has often [croker] been another weight on ther shoulders till they got abit of luck las years final. mayo or galway shoud not have agreed to this arrangment with conn.council forfeiting home advantage in finals to sligo, leitrim lond. ect. Its abit like this minor league set up wer mayo was broke up into 2 north/south…east/west n vise versa,Galway .city/county and tha rossies n sligos stay as they were.Who did this benefit certainly not mayo and i woud argue we have lost tha most ground n tha minor championship.The rossies are tha big benefactors n sligo improv,n rapidly too.My point being ere lads is we shoud,t be giving any advantage to nobody, we hav,t on an all ire. in over 50 years and were gonna need every little bit help we can get, especially from ourselfs as we get f… all from outside our own county and that includes our next door neighbors tha herr. chokers,sheepstealers or magpies.Its not our problem they dont have a ground tha holds 25,000 sligo n i cannot fathom why they hav,t done something with tha ground anyway,[dump] mayb cause its a scoccer town, anyway not our problem. Hope we dnt. regret this on tha 15th july.. UP MAYO…
True Citog1. jarlaths , the succesful teams often had up to ten Mayo boys on them. Since boarding stopped that has changed. I agree with Johnno, mo when he says we should cede no advantage to any county in any format. The minors is a great example of how Sligo and Ros came on. Its not our job to help anyother county, likewisw with senior arrngements. we were due to play Sligo art home next , we lost below in Sligo in 2010 so there should have been no question about it. Anyway that is irrelevant…if we are where we would like to be then beating Sligo no matter how good they are should be well within our compass. Losing is unthinkable…I can see the Independent, grinning men in black and white, first ever Sligo men to win two senior connacht finals. Lets not be the fffiiing gateway for that scenario, we have opened enough doors for outfits to make hay on our reputation.
MO2012 , 2008 final was in McHale park, 2009 final was in salthill and we never made the final in 2010, so all them comparisons are null and void.
There was the bulk of 15k in mchale pk the last day for a sf that was a mismatch.
I will stick by my prediction on this , (if ross minors win), there will be a scramble for tickets like never seen before for a CF. You heard it hear first, old hand.
Roscommon do attend well at underage, which is their biggest chance of success. I was at 2 U21 games this year that pulled a big crowd. I don’t know will it get to 25000 though.
So far this year only 4 times has 15000 attendances been broken, all at home:
1. Dublin-Louth, Wexford-Longford / Croke Park double header at 31000 (home)
2. Cork-Kerry / Pairc Ui Chaoimh at 23000 (home)
3. Kildare Offaly with double header with Offaly hurlers in Tullamore at 16000 (home)
4. Armagh-Tyrone in Athletics Grounds with 16000 (home)
Similarly last year, non-home 15000 match attendances outside of Croke Park were only broken in the Ulster Semi Final and Final in Clones, and the Louth-Meath revenge double header in Breffni.
Just some useless statistics there for you now.
Actually that Louth-Meath match was a home match for Cavan and Louth nominated that as home venue as well, so that one doesn’t count :p I wish we were able to edit our own posts Willie, any chance of that?
Digits – sure thing but you need to be logged in to do it. I’ll set you up with log-in details and email them to you. If anyone else who wants to be able to log in as well you might just let me know but I’m away on hols on Monday morning so it’ll have to wait until I get back.
Don’t see why the Mayo’s are getting upset over ground capacities. Was there even 3k of yee at last years final? Sunshine supporters. We had at least 3k in Tuam tonight where we nearly lost to Galway after owning the ball. Correct decision to have the match in the Hyde, where most locals will naturally support the underdog Sligo in the senior final. Thats hardly a bad thing a county with a mere 3 Connacht titles up against one with 44 or so. Minor final will be impossible to call, this level is very unpredictable, hopefully we can continue our recent renaissance at underage and dream of bigger days ahead against mighty teams like Mayo. Enjoys the hols WJ, just after a week off myself.
James Joyce is right Ros people do support their underage teams well and we had very small support at final last year. The genuine supporters were there but lots of others stayed at home. But over 14000 v leitrim was huge this year and I d expect a big crowd in the Hyde. As regards ros people supporting sligo what would one expect .Games will be won on pitch not in the stand and terraces.
so kildare according to pat spillane were a top four side after todays display i didnt see anything to frighten mayo by either dubs meath or kildare
Roscommon support – are they able to support their own. Do we no recall a bail out (1 million) by a generous benefactor about 6 or seven years.
The bail out was by a builder from Castlerea, John Murphy (a huge Roscommon fan) who gave Roscommon County Board a 1 million interest free loan. What is Mayo’s dept – 10 million? for a stadium formerly known as McHale Park – now Elverys. A 600k dept write off as well. No wonder you guys wanted the game in Castlebar.
Ah who cares how many rossies are ther as long as they behave themselfs on their day out,why woud,t they support their minors who hav come on leaps n tha last few years or so prob. at our expence since we continue to hav 2 teams compete in tha minor league instead of having a championship panel in the minor league and stop this bull…. once n forall giving an advantage to other county,s… ENOUGH.. C,MON THE GREEN N RED , A DOUBLE SUNDAY WEEK …
“since we continue to hav 2 teams compete in tha minor league instead of having a championship panel in the minor league and stop this bull”
Mayo like every other team made full use of their 24 man panel during the minor league are you getting mixed up with Ted Webb cup where Mayo have 2 teams in that?