Sport

McEniff says 'kill or cure' label would be unfair

News round-up : Long-serving Ulster football manager Brian McEniff says it would be unfair to treat the staging at Croke Park…

Seán Moran GAA Correspondent
Fri Oct 19 2007 - 01:00

News round-up: Long-serving Ulster football manager Brian McEniff says it would be unfair to treat the staging at Croke Park of next weekend's finals of the interprovincial competition as a "kill or cure" situation.

McEniff was speaking ahead of tomorrow's semi-final double bill under lights in Ballybofey where Ulster face Connacht in both hurling and football.

It has been decided to stage the finals at Croke Park tomorrow week and the GAA has undertaken to promote them as an event with a marketing campaign. This has already been undermined by the victory of Munster over Leinster in both of last weekend's initial semi-finals, which means the matches tomorrow week will feature the provinces most distant from Dublin.

"I think it would be very unfair to issue that ultimatum to the competition," according to McEniff. "There's no player unavailable to me - and there are 18 through injuries and club commitments - who wouldn't like to be playing. Not everyone has an All Star."

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The move to Croke Park carries the risk that the occasion will be undermined by a small crowd in such a vast stadium, a fear expressed by Leinster football manager Val Andrews at the competition launch last week. "I'd have sympathy with what Val was saying," says McEniff, "but the GAA need to spend a bit on the marketing. Since they started to advertise the International Rules they've attracted big crowds, including between 15 and 20 per cent who wouldn't regularly attend Gaelic games.

"The task is to sell it to the general public as a package. Croke Park is a fine stadium and it would be possible to direct the promotion at those who don't get an opportunity to visit it. I think that schools should be targeted, particularly on a long weekend and allow children free admission.

"I'd say that about 60 per cent of the schoolchildren in Dublin haven't been to Croke Park. This would be a good opportunity to promote our games and showcase the stadium."

In the immediate term Ulster have to overcome the challenge of last year's finalists Connacht, while missing a number of first-choice players with Down's Benny Coulter, Tyrone's Stephen O'Neill and Owen Mulligan and Vincent Corey from Monaghan all injured, Derry's Paddy Bradley involved in the county final replay and Armagh's Steven McDonnell attending a wedding.

McEniff blames the All-Ireland qualifiers for some of his problems but also feels that the ideal timing for the competition would be at the end of October when there will be fewer club fixtures. "There are a number of injuries but we're also short all of the players who have club commitments and they're not just caused by county finals and semi-finals but play-offs and league games. These are fixtures that didn't get played because of the qualifiers during the summer. It's something the special congress in January will have to address."

Meanwhile, GAA president Nickey Brennan met yesterday in Paris with the AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou to see if the International Rules series could be got back on track. Brennan was accompanied by Croke Park's Player Welfare Manager Páraic Duffy. There will be no statement from the meeting, as the president needs to brief the Management Committee and Central Council.

Yesterday's meeting was to consider the Australian response to a GAA discussion document, drawn up by Duffy and intended to address Irish concerns in relation to the long-term viability of the game and in particular the issue of discipline.

The next meeting of the GAA's Management Committee takes place tomorrow week and will probably be followed by an official statement on the international series but no decision will be taken until December's meeting of Central Council.

• Dublin's Paul Griffin is reported as saying that he will be unavailable to the team until the end of next June. Griffin intends to travel to the Southern Hemisphere for six months in the new year and had informed Paul Caffrey and the Dublin management team of his plans some time ago.

ULSTER(SF v Connacht): J Reilly (Cavan); B Owens (Fermanagh), K McCloy (Derry), K Lacey (Donegal); A Kernan (Armagh), C Gormley (Tyrone), K Cassidy (Donegal); O Lennon (Monaghan), D Gordon (Down); D Clerkin (Monaghan), S Cavanagh (Tyrone), P Finlay (Monaghan); T Freeman (Monaghan), G Pierson (Cavan), E Muldoon (Derry).