McKenna defends no lights decision

CROKE PARK stadium manager Peter McKenna has defended the decision not to turn on floodlights towards the end of last Saturday’s Allianz FL Division 3 final between Louth and Westmeath.

The game concluded in semi-darkness with visibility appearing to be an issue for the two sets of players involved. Louth captain Paddy Keenan complained afterwards saying he could barely see.

“Definitely in the second-half it was very dark,” said Keenan. “I have bad enough eyesight at the best of times without it being dark. If we were training in that we’d be complaining that we wanted the lights on,” Keenan said.

But McKenna insisted that the stadium’s policy is not to turn them on during games. “We don’t want to cause a problem for the players while they’re in the middle of the action,” said McKenna.

“We wait until there is a break in play. For example that would be at half-time or at full-time in a match that is going to extra-time. The only exception really is the times when there is very bad weather, such as during the 2008 All-Ireland quarter-final between Kerry and Galway.

“We were watching the situation on Saturday and we felt very happy with what was going on. I don’t think it affected the match for either Louth or Westmeath.

“We kept on monitoring the situation and if there were ever any issues that were not acceptable to the two teams, then we would have turned them on.

“We turned the lights on after the match because we needed to do work in the pitch and clean up the stands, so as to get the stadium ready for the league finals on Sunday.”

Meanwhile Westmeath manager Pat Flanagan has revealed that AFL bound star John Heslin is still part of his championship plans for this summer.

Heslin will link up with Richmond this autumn but will be involved in the Lake County’s Leinster championship campaign.

The St Loman’s player was unavailable for their league final last Saturday due to suspension.

“John obviously is a very young man. He’s only 18 years of age, he got himself sent off against Cavan and he got himself sent off against Longford (U21).

“He’s a Westmeath footballer and a Westmeath player and a very proud man at the back of that. I would certainly believe that he’ll be wearing a Westmeath jersey in the coming months.”

Flanagan will welcome key attacker Dessie Dolan back into their camp this week after he returns from a trip to Australia.

Defender Michael Ennis and midfielder David Duffy are both on the mend from injuries as well.