Munster final offer is just the ticket

THREE cheers for the Munster Council.

Well, we give out about administration and administrators often enough, so credit where it’s due.

Whoever came up with the idea of giving out two tickets for the price of one for Sunday’s Munster football final deserves a promotion, or a car pass, or extra chocolate Swiss roll at half-time or some other form of recognition.

The easiest thing in the world would have been to hold the hands over the ears and cross the fingers — not at the same time, obviously — and hope that people would rediscover some kind of obligation to travel. Instead they preempted the problem. Nobody expects the record capacity of Páirc Uí Chaoimh to come under threat on Sunday, but what’s the betting that on Monday people will be saying “Imagine if there hadn’t been a two-for-one deal?”

That isn’t the end of the kudos for the Munster Council, by the way: lately they’ve introduced a measure to facilitate teams and media by bringing managers and selected players to a press room for interviews after a game.

That probably doesn’t mean an awful lot to most of our readers this morning, but if you have never had the dubious pleasure of stepping over the sprawled gear-bags and empty water bottles in an inter-county dressing room to ask a naked corner-forward reeking of Lynx Snake-peel Shower Gel how he in fact managed to score that last point ... well, you’re not missing a whole lot. The press are happy because they have a few quotes, the players are happy because it’s all over and done with in a few minutes.

A little bit of structure which helps everyone out, and nobody is remotely nostalgic for the whiff of adidas Team Force deodorant.

ANYWAY. Back to the crowds. In Leinster there’s a crowd problem of a different order, and it’s not just a matter of smart comments about offering four tickets for the price of one for the Leinster hurling final this weekend (Though given the crowd we’re likely to see this weekend, the argument for a toss of venue between Kilkenny and Wexford is pretty strong).

Last Sunday we had the unedifying sight of yet another Dublin game being held up to accommodate latecomers, a situation which left “beyond a joke” in the rear view mirror many moons ago.

The day can’t be far away when dummy throw-in times are given out to entice spectators into Croke Park within some kind of ass’s roar of a workable starting point. That can only happen with the full collusion of the Garda authorities, stadium management and broadcasting partners, of course, but what about the teams involved?

Right now every team which comes into Croke Park to take on Dublin in championship action knows there’s a good to fair chance that that game won’t be starting on time. That kind of uncertainty impacts hugely on team preparation, particularly in those crucial few minutes before the players take the field.

Don’t underestimate the significance of those few minutes: former Cork hurling manager Donal O’Grady is on record as saying that his players’ preparation was seriously put out when they were held back in the tunnel under the Hogan Stand by stewards before the 2003 final.

For teams trying to make the big breakthrough, getting to the right emotional pitch in the dressing room is hard enough — lowering the temperature when you’re informed that the crowd haven’t made it out of the Cat and Cage is a complication that isn’t needed.

None of that is Paul Caffrey’s fault, nor that of his players or county board. They can’t get their supporters in any quicker than anyone else.

Maybe something should be offered to those supporters. If a two-for-one deal works in Munster, a money-back offer if you’re a Dublin fan who can make it to Croke Park on time might work.

You’d be rewarding Dubliners for doing what people from Beara and Achill and Letterkenny do without a problem every summer, of course. But what’s the alternative?

Contact: [e-mail]