Croker pitch passes test

THE post-match reaction was resoundingly positive from players towards the new Croke Park surface after yesterday’s All-Ireland SFC quarter-final double-bill.

Following last weekend’s U2 concerts, a new pitch was put down in a tremendous feat of engineering and logistics. But the fears that this would have a detrimental effect on the quality of football being served up proved unfounded.

Despite the visible marks indicating the different sections where the turf was laid, Tyrone captain Brian Dooher insisted none of their players had any problems with the condition of the surface.

“No, the pitch was fine. You may have seen the lines there but I couldn’t fault the pitch. The pitch was as good as ever it’s been. I’m not blaming the pitch. To be fair now, a lot of people would probably be looking to criticise the GAA for the pitch but definitely I couldn’t fault it anyway.”

After their emphatic dismissal of Donegal, it would have been difficult for the Cork players to express grievances about the surface. But the uniform response from the Rebel camp was a strong thumbs up.

“We’ve no complaints anyway,” stated Cork attacker Paul Kerrigan. “You could see the laying of it, but we’ve no complaints. There was a bit of give in it and everything, which is good. The ball was bouncing grand and I found no real difficulties.”

Wing-forward Paddy Kelly concurred with that assessment.

“It was fine and actually hard enough which is good. I wore multi-studs today and it was not slippery, so there were no problems. Conor (Counihan) was in there last night checking it out and he talked to the groundsman. The word got back to us in the team, that it was a big solid pitch. Everyone makes their own decision then when it comes for boots, but I’d go for multi studs when it’s not raining.”

Defender John Miskella revealed that he originally had reservations about the surface when checking it out before the match.

“I went out there first and it was looking fairly dodgy. It was patchy in places. It’s going to be pretty roughed up now after Monday. But it’s only going to improve, as it’s just been laid. It was still pretty good to play on.”