Brennan defends Parnell Park choice

NICKEY BRENNAN insists GAA chiefs were right to play the Division One and Division Three Finals at Parnell Park on Sunday.

The Central Competitions Control Committee were criticised for their choice of venue but the president said that the decision was justified. Brennan also stressed that Croke Park was never an option due to surface works ahead of the championships.

“Playing on it would have affected the growth during the summer. We did state all along that there would be a period of ‘outages,’ after the trouble we had two years ago. We opted for a period of a number of small outages rather than a ‘big’ outage — and that was just the window we used.

“It’s important to understand that this was well flagged. So, it was a little bit surprising to hear people talk about Croke Park and what not! And anyway, being realistic about it, with the combination of teams we were proven right in holding it at a smaller venue.”

Brennan didn’t agree that one of the provincial venues would have been more suitable for supporters. Their reasoning was that neither Derry or Kerry would bring a big crowd, he said, adding: “we all knew that, to be frank about it, and we felt there would be as much of a walk-up crowd from Kerry in Dublin as there would be coming from the Kingdom. In relation to Wexford and Fermanagh, it was a logical half-way house anyway. So from that point of view, I think we got the venue reasonably right.”

Meanwhile, he revealed a packing error was the cause of the ‘mishap’ which resulted in the trophy for the Division Three winners in Parnell Park (Wexford) ending up in Portlaoise for the Division Four champions (Offaly).

Apologising, he said he realised there was a problem when he arrived. “It shouldn’t have happened. We’ll get the matter rectified during the week.”

Dublin County Board Secretary John Costello stepped in and provided the O’Byrne Cup for the presentation to the Wexford captain Colm Morris.

Meanwhile, the GAA President expects news in the next few days from the AFL in regard to the timetable for the resumption of the International Rules Series in Australia next October. The delay in agreeing the dates, he explained, is because cricket and rugby league events are “impacting on availability of venues.” In the meantime, he has been in touch with the league’s CEO, Andrew Dimetriou, to inform him that they are under pressure to formalise the tour. “The dates we have are late October, but I’d like to close down the venues at this stage and then we can say all systems go.’’