Kildare to monitor ticket sales before deciding gate policy

Kildare GAA chiefs will monitor the ticketing situation on a daily basis before issuing any recommendations about whether or not patrons should come to the gate on Saturday night.

Last year, Kildare’s home qualifier against Limerick was switched to Portlaoise and there was speculation that a similar move could be in the offing for Saturday’s tie with Tyrone.

Tullamore was also mooted but county secretary Kathleen O’Neill insisted the board would never have agreed to any switch now that St Conleth’s Park’s capacity has increased to 7,500.

“From our point of view, we would always have said that no matter who was coming we were going to host it in Newbridge” said O’Neill.

“It will be an all-ticket game but so are all the championship games in Newbridge so that wouldn’t be unusual either. We’d made it very clear all along that if it was home, it was home.”

An official attendance of just over 7,000 was reported for the visit of Louth last Saturday so it is anticipated Tyrone’s arrival will be a sell out despite the game being televised.

“We’ll take every day as it comes. We’ll be looking for the clubs to order their tickets by [today] and we’ll have a fair idea once we print those as to how it’s going.

“Obviously we’ll have to see how the Tyrone tickets are going and if they’re not going that well we’ll be looking to get those tickets back into Kildare.”

Meanwhile, Mickey Harte has described the qualifier against Kildare as “one of the toughest draws we could have got”.

The Tyrone manager has enjoyed success over the Lilywhites twice already this term, including a convincing league victory at St Conleth’s before a very well contested Division 1 semi-final between the sides.

He regards it as a fine line with regard to the development of his team and knows that whoever emerges successful will have received a significant boost to their campaign.

“It is one of the toughest draws we could have got,” said Harte on Kildare radio station Kfm yesterday. “We’re both in the top division in the league. People would argue that wouldn’t be the case in the championship but I would argue that we are up in the top eight there.

“Having to go to Newbridge won’t be easy but if you can win a game like that it can give you great confidence. That’s the value of getting a tough match at this stage.

“It’s a great game if you win it and if you lose it you feel a bit sorry for yourself but that’s life, that’s the luck of the draw and we have to go with it.”