Busy Croke Park pitch comes in for praise

Although there remains plenty of activity to come in the weeks ahead, the Croke Park playing surface has emerged from its busiest phase of the year with its reputation greatly enhanced.

"You'd have to be very pleased," says the stadium director, Peter McKenna, after the second successive weekend of six-match programmes.

"There's still a while to go but we'd be confident of having a cracking surface for the All-Ireland finals."

Yesterday the Gaelic Players Association released a statement praising the venue.

"Hosting such a hectic schedule of games over consecutive days is an outstanding achievement. Despite criticism of the playing surface in the past, feedback from our members this season has been extremely positive and we acknowledge the efforts of everyone involved in improving the pitch," the statement read.

From now on the surface will, barring replays, be taking just one programme of two matches per weekend.

McKenna said the exceptionally dull summer had been a problem, contributing to the one damaged area on the field, the Canal End goalmouth.

"You expect plenty of high sun in July. When the sun is perpendicular in the sky the whole ground gets cover. The groundsmen have been doing running repairs.

"The weekend before last, two-and-a-half inches of rain fell on Saturday night and Sunday.

"We'll put down some pre-germinated seed but that takes two-and-a-half weeks to grow so although it (the Canal End goal) will be improved it won't have time to fully recover."

Praise for the pitch comes after a number of years of criticism, as the stadium struggled to get the surface right, that the ground was too hard and too slippery.

"A lot of the criticism was constructive," said McKenna. "Our consultants devised a very good regime and the staff have implemented it really well."

The company is the English-based Sports Turf Research Institute, and the consultant dealing with Croke Park is Richard Hayden from Kilkenny.

McKenna also denied the pitch was in such good condition because of the heavy rainfall of recent weeks.

"Rain helps because the water is better-quality than sprinklers - tap water is too hard. But relentless rain is bad because it gathers in pools and causes the grass to rot. It also makes day-to-day activity like cutting the grass difficult - you don't get the same quality of cut on a wet pitch."

He also credited the decision to restrict access with helping preserve the quality of the surface.

"Central Council's decision to cut out training sessions for teams has been a major factor in protecting the surface. Training is very hard on the surface because of the repetition of drills."

Asked had this move not proved contentious given the extensive training access allowed to the international rugby and soccer teams earlier in the year, McKenna distinguished between the situations.

"The rugby and soccer teams needed familiarisation with the pitch size, which is different from our teams, nearly all of whom have played at Croke Park and are familiar with the dimensions."

Also, measures to combat ticket touting were visible in match programmes over the weekend with invitations to people who had paid more than face value for tickets to contact the association.