Ulster Council cool on moving crunch clash to Croker

ULSTER COUNCIL secretary Danny Murphy has poured cold water on the campaign to hold this summer’s provincial football championship first round clash between Tyrone and Armagh at Croke Park.

Omagh’s Healy Park has been pencilled in as the venue but demand for tickets is expected to exceed the ground’s capacity of 25,000.

The counties have shared the last ten Ulster titles and their modern rivalry is such that the possibility of their potential pairing in the 2004 final prompted the decision to move the provincial football final to Dublin for the first time.

As it turned out, Armagh met Donegal in that decider but the experiment was an unqualified success and the Ulster final was played in Dublin again the following year when a replay was required and in 2006.

However, Murphy seemed reticent yesterday when asked about the possibility of bringing a first-round fixture to the capital, claiming there was a danger of establishing a precedent that couldn’t be continued in future years.

“We have played three Ulster finals and an Ulster final replay at Croke Park and they were all very successful,” he said in Belfast yesterday. “It’s not a case that we’re not interested, but this is the first round and we feel that the continuity of the competition is as important as that one game.

“Tyrone played at home in Healy Park against Derry the year after they won the All-Ireland in 2005. Derry and Tyrone is a substantial contest so precedent has been set.”

However, he also went on to say: “It’s the first round of the Ulster Championship so the Ulster Council’s rules apply, whichever team is drawn out first can play at home or opt for a neutral venue if they are entirely incapable of hosting the game.”

The Council will make a final decision on the venue in March. Murphy believes the “likelihood is that the game will be in Omagh” as originally intended but Mickey Harte has no qualms about giving up home ground if Croke Park is the alternative.

“We like to play football in Croke Park, which is the home of Gaelic Games in Ireland,” said Harte. “This is the Ulster Championship so there should be sufficient interest in the game for us to go there again. The level of interest in this game will be such, I hope, that a decision is made that way.”

Murphy went some way towards backing Harte up by pointing to a six per cent increase in Ulster Championship attendances — 20 per cent with replays — last season and Harte believes that a Croke Park setting would be a statement of intent.

“No disrespect to Omagh or to Clones, but holding this match in Croke Park might give the 125th anniversary a special feeling it should have. This would be a confident statement for the Ulster Council to make. It wouldn’t be saying that we aren’t capable of hosting the game (in Ulster).

“To lead on from what happened in the first League game, why not do this? It’s not for me to speak for officials but if they want to know my opinion, I’ll let it be known and I would be happy to see this game moved to Croke Park.”

Armagh secretary Paddy Nugent added that his county would have no objection to the game being switched to Croke Park but pointed out that the ball was in Tyrone’s court as it was a designated home tie for the All-Ireland champions.