Croker chief admits pitch problems
The adverse weather conditions affected the play from an early stage in yesterday’s clash between Kerry and Meath, with players on both teams struggling to adapt.
“In the first-half certainly there was slipping that you wouldn’t be entirely happy with, particularly with the penalty,” remarked McKenna.
“Some of that you come to expect with a squally, wet day. What you get with light rain like we had today, it sits on top of the grass. If the grass is lush like it is there, you will get a greasy interface. It’s something for us to look at, no doubt about it.
“I talked to some of the players and any of the Kerry guys that were wearing six stud boots had no issues. Fellas wearing moulded boots or blade boots certainly did have issues. But we’d like to think that the surface wouldn’t be boot-dependant, so we’ve got some work to look at during the week.”
McKenna ruled out the option of scarifying the pitch before next Sunday, but believes spiking the surface will be beneficial.
“I was down on the surface there with our pitch people. One suggestion is that the grass cover is too lush, that we could do with thinning it out somewhat. That’s not something we’re going to do between now and the finals obviously.
“Ideally we’d look at scarifying it if we had more time, but I’m not inclined to do that, I think that could change the characteristics of the pitch. During the week, we did a lot of spiking on the surface. That breaks it up and gives it a little more traction for the studded foot. We’ll do a little bit more of that this week.”
McKenna insisted they had no regrets from laying a new surface during the middle of the championship.
“No, the positives we’ve had from the pitch and the work we’ve done have been very, very strong. This is the first time we’ve had criticism.”
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