The Allianz National Football League semi-finals will definitely not be played at Croke Park but there is no clear consensus over where the matches will now take place. After a week of confused signals over whether the headquarters venue would be available for the matches on April 17th, the GAA's Games Administration Committee have confirmed that it will not.
"We're meeting on this on Wednesday night to decide on the options," said GAC secretary Seán Ó Laoire, "but in the match schedule drawn up for this year between the Croke Park Stadium Committee and GAC the first two dates are: St Patrick's Day, March 17th, for the club finals and April 24th for the National Football League finals."
Uncertainty about whether pitch repair work would be completed in time created ambiguity about the semi-finals but stadium director Peter McKenna said yesterday that he had not intended to give the impression in a newspaper at the weekend that the ground would be ready for next Sunday week.
"I think it was probably my fault that the wrong message got out. We were never scheduled to take the semi-finals," he said yesterday.
The news was greeted with dismay among the counties who have qualified. It's the second year running that Tyrone have missed out on playing NFL semi-finals at Croke Park.
"My thoughts are that I'm hugely disappointed this has happened to us yet again," said manager Mickey Harte, whose side will meet Wexford.
"It's up to the counties to decide where we play and that's not my area but it's disappointing. Players don't get a lot of chances to play at Croke Park and it's a shame that an occasion like the semi-final of the National League isn't one of them."
Last year Tyrone and Galway tossed a coin to determine home venue for their semi-final and ended up playing a draw and replay in Omagh and Salthill, respectively. Harte said, however, he would oppose a similar method of determining this year's match.
"I wouldn't want to toss for venue. It's a very long trip but also it's no way to decide arrangements for a competition like the National League. I wasn't in favour of it last year and I'm not this time. But it's not up to me."
It's 55 years since Wexford last reached the semi-finals of the NFL on which occasion the county took Meath to a replay before losing.
"It certainly would have been very positive for us," was the reaction of Wexford manager Pat Roe to the news that the venue wouldn't be available. "We're playing Carlow there in the championship and it would have been ideal preparation."
Complicating matters for the GAC is that Wexford also have an NHL match against Kilkenny the same weekend.To organise a double bill at Nowlan Park would require Tyrone's approval and the possible solution of a Saturday fixture for the hurling match is undermined by the fact that it's the weekend of the GAA Congress.
In the other semi-final Mayo play Armagh whose manager Joe Kernan says that, while disappointed, they have set in motion a proposal for settling a venue for the match.
"I just heard the news today," he said. "We would definitely have wanted to play there and I think you could have got around 60,000 to the double bill. Ourselves and Mayo alone would have brought up to 20,000 each. It seems a bit strange that the pitch will certainly be ready for April 24th but not a week earlier. Still that's what we've been told.
"What we have asked for seeing as it won't be in Croke Park is that we toss with Mayo for home province advantage. We'd play in Breffni Park if we win the toss and in Hyde Park if it's Mayo. That proposal has been put through the proper channels."
Mayo manager John Maughan, however, wasn't that favourably disposed to the compromise. "We'd have objections to Breffni Park. It's very far away and we had to go there for the under-21 final last year (also against Armagh). The proposal we're putting is that the counties toss for home venue and as Armagh don't have a venue big enough, the choice would be between Castlebar and Clones."
When told this idea would have little appeal for Armagh and that the Breffni/Hyde Park option might get the support of GAC, Maughan said: "If that's the way it's got to be, that's the way it's got to be."
