GAA NEWS:A DECISION will be made next week on whether to replicate the All-Ireland hurling final presentation in the Hogan Stand for the football final or take the preferred GAA option of using the Croke Park pitch. Again, it depends on pitch invasions or, as in last Sunday's case, a lack thereof.
The GAA was greatly encouraged by the first All-Ireland final in several years not to be marked by fans invading the field after a sustained campaign involving players, officials and gardaí to keep supporters in the stands and terrace for safety reasons.
A decision was taken a few days before the All-Ireland hurling final to present both the minor and senior trophies up in the Hogan Stand regardless of how many supporters entered the field of play at full time.
As it turned out, and to many people’s surprise, the security measures in place deterred a pitch invasion, perhaps assisted by an awareness that a lap of honour would follow the presentation of the Liam MacCarthy Cup to Tipp captain Eoin Kelly.
“We are delighted with last weekend but really we need to focus on the football final now and get the full support from Down and Cork supporters,” said GAA director of communications Lisa Clancy yesterday.
“The Tipperary players were delighted as it gave them space to congratulate each other which they normally wouldn’t have had.”
A pitch presentation for the football final still remains a possibility but, with uncertainty remaining over whether Down or Cork supporters will enter the playing surface on Sunday week, the traditional presentation in the stand looks set to continue.
“We have a meeting next week when we will go through all that,” Clancy explained. “What we did want to have the last time was consistency for the minor and senior presentations – either both on the pitch or up in the Hogan Stand.”
This weekend’s All-Ireland camogie finals will adopt the same policy despite the lack of threat from a reduced crowd. Antrim defender Rhona Torney will be defying doctor’s orders when she lines out for the Saffrons against Waterford in Sunday’s Gala All-Ireland junior camogie final.
The 23-year-old captained the county to Ulster championship and National League successes two years ago but was told by the medics last year to give up all sport because of a rare heart condition called Long QT Syndrome (LQTS).
The St John’s GAC player’s problem is a disorder of the heart’s electrical activity which can sometimes lead to sudden death, so she consigned her playing career to the sidelines.
After six months, though, the Belfast woman could take no more of the sedentary life and returned to the fold, willing to risk everything for her dream of playing at Croke Park. “When everyone saw how down I was, they knew it wasn’t me. My family didn’t want me to go back and that was hard because obviously, it’s them I care about,” said Torney.
An operation to place a battery-operated mechanism into her heart would help her condition according to her doctors but they would still not have allowed her to play. So after discussing the matter with her family, she returned to training four months ago. “You only get one chance and I might as well do something I enjoy instead of living and having regrets,” added Torney.
