O’Neill: We don’t want to see legends
Kerry boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice ventilated his growing frustration yesterday at the “Croke Park diktat” which left two Kingdom selectors with 12 All-Ireland medals between them communicating with their manager through a wire fence in Killarney last Sunday in the Munster SFC win over Tipperary.
And with the Kingdom back at Fitzgerald Stadium this evening for a provincial semi-final against Waterford, Fitzmaurice expressed dismay that legends Mikey Sheehy and Diarmuid Murphy are being treated as such while reporters and stewards are permitted in the dugouts and along the sideline.
However GAA president Mr O’Neill insisted the regulations on the issue were not that stringent, and as long as the selectors remained in a properly constructed dug-out, they should be permitted to be inside the wire.
The confusion seemed to have persisted on the basis that the initial regulations were designed for a Croke Park-like situation where there is a facility in the Hogan Stand to move officials and team subs into. There are other inter-county grounds around the country where there are no dug-outs and management are allowed on the sideline.
Fitzmaurice said: “It’s very disappointing and I flagged it last January that this diktat was just not good enough. However, last Sunday it reached a new level of farce. You had Mikey Sheehy, who has eight All-Ireland medals, numerous All Stars, Texaco Footballer of the Year and a member of the Team of the Millennium, and Diarmuid Murphy, with four All-Ireland medals and three or four All Stars, both outside the wire in Fitzgerald Stadium.
“What was maddening and farcical was that Newstalk had a sideline reporter [ironically former Kerry star John Crowley] sitting in our dugout, while the RTÉ sideline reporter was able to sit in the Tipperary dugout. Then you had the Order of Malta volunteers sitting in our dugout while our two doctors had to sit in the stand. I think that this is not acceptable.”
However, when the Irish Examiner queried the precise instructions with the GAA president, O’Neill moved to provide some clarity to the situation.
“Where there is a dugout, selectors and other designated members of the management team are perfectly entitled to sit in it. It is up to each individual ground to manage its seating. The regulations were envisaged to keep people from unnecessary patrolling of the sideline.”
The Kerry boss believes the regulation may have been designed with club games in mind but is not needed at inter-county level. “I understand that concern, where sometimes you can have 30 or 40 on the sideline and more often than not a referee is on his own and has enough to do to referee the match, besides worrying about what goes on over on the sideline.
“However at inter-county level, there is rarely if ever a problem between managements, and I think the way it was, was fine. There appears to be plenty of other people on the sideline if last Sunday is anything to go by — media people, fourth officials, fifth official, Munster Council officials, stewards, Order of Malta, plenty of traffic. Yet people like Mikey Sheehy, a legend, who has put so much into the game, can’t get on the sideline.”
He added: “It is something that needs to be changed. There has been no debate about it, we have never been asked or been given a forum to discuss it. I think it’s not good enough and I am not happy at all. When Paul Galvin came off after a heavy collision, he was a bit groggy, the medical staff was trying to examine him in the dugout, but the fourth official was over straight away to tell him, he had to go up into the stand.”
GAA officials maintained yesterday that proper reading of the guidelines and nomination of key people inside the wire would clarify the situation. However it was also accepted that the Croke Park model did not work for every inter-county ground around the country.
Meanwhile, Fitzmaurice said the selection of the same 15 that walloped Tipperary to start tonight is an indication of their focus on the job in hand.
“The 15 fellows who started last weekend all did very well, and they are in possession of the jerseys at the moment and it’s up to the other lads now to try and take them off them.
“We did discuss the fact we have players who were coming back from injury and then you have players like Darran O’Sullivan and Bryan Sheehan who are close to starting as well. But the criteria we are using is going with the 15 in form, and once you get possession of the jersey then it’s up to you to hold onto it.”
He added: “Waterford beat Tipperary in the League, and if they are capable of beating Tipperary, they are probably a step up from them. Secondly, if you take your eye off the ball you are going to get caught. They will probably be quite defensive as they’ve chosen two wing backs at wing forward so they will have lots of bodies behind the ball.”
KERRY (SFC v Waterford): B Kealy; M Ó Sé, A O’Mahony, F Fitzgerald; T Ó Sé, K Young, P Crowley; A Maher, J Buckley; P Galvin, C Cooper, D Walsh; Declan O’Sullivan, K Donaghy, J O’Donoghue. Subs: B Kelly, B Sheehan, Darran O’Sullivan, K O’Leary, M Griffin, B McGuire, E Brosnan, M Geaney, P Curtin, S Enright, J Lyne.
WATERFORD: S Enright; T Ó hUallacháin, N Walsh, M O’Gorman; C Phelan, S Briggs, J Hurney; M O’Gorman, T Prendergast; T Grey, S Aherne, A Doyle; P Whyte, G Hurney, R Aherne.
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