Cooney: Croker pitch will be fine

GAA President Christy Cooney is confident that preparatory work for two music concerts, which includes the removal of the top surface of the pitch, will have no impact on pitch conditions for upcoming Championship matches at Croke Park.

Take That will hold two concerts at the Jones's Road venue next week - on Saturday, June 18 and Sunday, June 19 - and work on the pitch commenced today.

On the Sunday after the concerts, there is a big Leinster SFC semi-final double header at Croke Park with Wexford or Westmeath taking on Carlow or Louth, and Dublin battling it out with Kildare in the second game.

It is a considerably less taxing operation than in August 2009 when the whole pitch was dug up to accommodate three U2 gigs at GAA headquarters.

Cooney said: "It's not anything like we had to do for the U2 concerts, when we did a massive job. This is just taking off the top layer (of the pitch).

"We would be doing it anyway at the end of the year, it would be a normal process for us to relay the pitch.

"Time constraints aren't an issue for us at this time. It is not an issue, it's fine. It is normal process now that we would put in place."

He added: "We did it in a very tight time frame for U2 and the pitch played perfectly the next day out. We have no issue with this. There will be a good job done.

"In actual fact the work we are doing here now is way less than the work we did for U2 because we are only taking off the top surface. That time we would have done a root and branch process with the pitch, so it is not a major issue."

During the re-turfing operation two years ago, 1,500 rolls of turf were installed on the pitch in just three days with games played the following weekend.