Hill 16 terrace unlikely to be used for football quarter-finals

THE GAA will have to decide over the next few days if they will utilise the available space on the new Hill 16 terrace for Saturday week’s Bank of Ireland football championship quarter-finals.

Those games will see Dublin taking on Kerry and Westmeath opposing Derry in a double-bill which has the potential to stretch the capacity to its current limit of just under 70,000.

However, director general Liam Mulvihill says the preference would be not to open up the terrace to ensure that it will be fully completed in time for the All-Ireland finals.

"Initially we were hoping to have it for the All-Ireland semi-finals, but I doubt if we will have it now. The builders would like as much time as possible to make sure they have it ready for the finals. They asked that, unless we were in serious trouble for the semi-finals with regard to capacity, they would prefer to continue the work," he commented.

Mr Mulvihill explained that two days' work would be lost if they were to use the terrace in its present state. The builders would have to stop work on a Thursday in order to prepare it for a game the following day and the first day of the next week would be taken by putting everything in place to resume the work. And all of this has important health and safety, as well as insurance considerations.

"We'll have to play it by ear and see what demand there is for the semi-final. Obviously our priority is to have it for the finals and the builders are on target for that. Otherwise we'll have to take each game as it comes." When completed, the overall capacity of the stadium will increase by just over 3,000 on what was available last year when the attendances for the finals were 79,383 and 79,391, respectively. What's available currently is slightly less than 70,000. A crowd of 67,136 attended the Ulster final and the figure for Sunday's games was lower, at 63,069. The redevelopment of the Hill will bring the official capacity up to 82,500. That's the actual ceiling, permitted under the planning permission, but it would be possible to accommodate an even bigger crowd.

Meanwhile, Mr Mulvihill says that it's unlikely that other counties will follow the lead given by Clare in their two games with Kilkenny in playing seven defenders. Expressing the view that it was a pity to see teams resorting to a type of blanket defence, he said that it ran counter to the philosophy of the game.

"Hurling is an open game and a very free-flowing game. That's the basis of hurling and the reason why it's so popular. You'd hate to see negative trends creeping into the game but I would never read anything into two games," he added.

Leinster Council chairman Nicky Brennan, an All-Ireland medal-winner with Kilkenny and a former manager, doesn't have any concern for the future either. But he agreed that the strategy employed by Clare was unattractive and was the principal reason why scoring was so low in both games.

"I don't think it would happen again. I think it was only a once-off. Hopefully, it was only that, otherwise it could destroy the game," he commented.