IT would have been a tough enough afternoon supporting Antrim on Saturday, what with their footballers and hurlers both suffering Championship-ending defeats.
Having to pay through the nose for the questionable privilege of seeing it was even worse.
That said, usually around this time of year, this page is inflamed with criticisms of the Antrim county board, so at least the public’s ire is directed elsewhere this time.
‘North Belfast Gael’ takes serious issue with the cost of entry to Corrigan Park on Saturday.
“On Saturday past I made the short trip across the city to support my native county in their qualifier game against Limerick.
“After travelling to Enniskillen for the fourth time in three years I was grateful for the Saffrons to have a home fixture and thought it was a good enough chance to make it through to the next round when considering that Limerick had been relegated from Division 3 and if press reports were correct, were in a slight bit of turmoil.
“However, my issue isn’t with the fact that a very poor Antrim performance led to defeat, it is with the pricing policy for the first round of the qualifiers.
“£16 (€20) is a scandalous price for a round one qualifier between a Division 3 and Division 4 side, you could maybe see some justification if you were paying into a stand or even decent terracing but sadly, as we are all very aware, no suitable facility exists within Antrim which the GAA are willing to use for the County side.
“Surely the GAA must address this issue before they drive away more supporters for their games, the few diehard Limerick fans that made the 450-mile round trip would’ve had a costly enough journey without being subjected to an inflated entrance fee.
“I was talking to a Dublin supporter on Monday who had attended the Leinster semi-finals the previous day and told me he paid €30 into Croke Park, I would consider this pretty good value given that it was a double header but the GAA must provide a level of consistency, a counter argument will be that gate receipts are re-invested back into grass roots but that should still not mean that they can charge as they like.
“The only positive that could be taken from the defeat to Limerick was that the heavens didn’t open as it threatened to for most of the first half!”
CO’K: Worse than charging £16 to adults is charging £4 to under-16s. The admission prices for Qualifiers are set by Croke Park and are the same at all games, regardless of facilities or the quality of the teams playing. Personally I’d want someone to be paying me £16 to go and watch some of the games.
Armagh have been handed a reprieve in the form of a replay with Laois following Subgate, but that doesn’t mean ‘Cathal from Armagh’ agrees with the idea.
“I’m just ringing to register my discontent at the stupidity of the GAA’s decision to make Armagh and Laois replay their game. The so-called offence had absolutely no bearing on the outcome of the match. Armagh were beaten fair and square. The stupid decision to order a replay has put Armagh in a very, very difficult position.
“Comments have appeared that they should be prepared to throw the game. This decision contrasts so ridiculously with the GAA’s steadfast refusal to grant Louth a replay against Meath in 2010, where one of the great injustices occurred. Now they have ordered a replay because Laois had a so-called illegal sub on for less than one minute of injury time.
“It really has put Armagh in a very difficult position. I very rarely miss an Armagh Championship game, but I will not be going to it, because it should never have been refixed. If they wanted to punish Laois, a fine – which is one of the options open to them – would have been more than sufficient.”
CO’K: Rules are rules. Once you start changing punishments according to interpretation, you’re on soft ground. Also, if Joe Sheridan’s infamous goal in 2010 hadn’t been given, it would have had to have been a penalty, so how do you order a replay when Meath didn’t get their penalty?
Fellow Armagh fan ‘Neil from the Grange’ (are you a cousin of Jenny from the Block by any chance?) is looking forward to his afternoon of deja vú, and has a masterplan to help his county stay in the Championship for as long as possible if things go wrong.
“Really looking forward to heading down to Laois this Saturday for what should be the game of the weekend. I've full faith that Armagh will do the business and have actually cancelled a holiday for the first weekend in August as I fully expect Armagh to be playing.
“If though it’s a southern ref and we get no decisions and somehow fall behind, I've come up with a great plan to ensure we don't get knocked out and want Geezer to hear to it.
“The GAA have set a precedent that if you use too many subs the game doesn't count and the match has to be replayed. So come Saturday if we are behind I urge McGeeney to throw on 7 or 8 subs and have another go the following week. We won't be beaten. The future is bright, it’s orange and white.”
CO’K: Next you’ll be suggesting they should gather up a few old boys and turn out in their jeans.
Others, meanwhile, had gripes with officialdom over the weekend. ‘Clock watcher in South Down’ appears to want money he didn’t pay refunded.
“Can somebody do something about the length of time it takes GAA players to take a free-kick. Watching the Dublin v Meath game, I timed one free-kick. From the time the referee blew the whistle until the free-kick was taken by Meath, it was about one minute and 20 seconds. Other ones were getting close to a minute. It’s absolutely outrageous. To take one minute and 20 seconds to take a free-kick in a 70-minute match is outrageous, particularly with the number of free kicks awarded in GAA matches. Maybe we should be getting a refund of the admission. Not that I was there of course, I was watching on TV.”
CO’K: Ring the Irish Government there and see if they’ll refund you for that southern TV licence that you paid for to watch RTÉ…
And lastly, ‘John from Monaghan’ wasn’t happy with Maxi Curran playing wing-half forward for Donegal on Saturday evening.
“Is it within the rules that the Donegal trainer spends more time on the field than off it? I want that publicly questioned. Secondly, criticism of the Donegal ‘keeper holding up the game for one-and-a-half minutes and damn all wrong with him, interrupting the momentum of play.”
CO’K: Anyone Tiernan McCann’s number handy?
