Leinster GAA has decided to stage a weekend of club action at Croke Park the week before Christmas. Saturday December 18th will see a double bill at the stadium, featuring the provincial football semi-finals and the following day, Sunday 19th, the hurling final will be played.
This is the first time that the province has used Croke Park for club matches since the stadium was redeveloped 20 years ago.
At a meeting on Tuesday night it was decided that the stadium and its bullet-proof playing surface offered certainty of fixture at a time of the year when conditions are always in danger of forcing weather-related postponements.
The club season has been affected by the pandemic-squeezed calendar this year but the provincial championships are scheduled to start towards the end of November. Leinster’s football final will take place in January.
In 2020, the late-running winter intercounty championships meant that the provincial and All-Ireland club competitions had to be cancelled.
It only got going after the scrap in the tunnel. The most entertaining period of the football club championships that I can remember is peak St. Brigid’s in 2012-13 and their victories over Crossmaglen and Ballymun.
The Ballyhale v Borrisileigh/Kilcoo v Corofin double header was one of my greatest days ever in Croke Park and I’ve seen quite a few.
Supporters from all 4 clubs mingling together in the Croke Park Hotel before the game. The Kilcoo fans in particular were lovely people.
There was something very special in the air, the colour of the sky was extremely weird. and the tension at the end of the football was as intense as the place has ever experienced. Lads on phones then making calls to people at home wondering what went on in the tunnel.
Then when it was all over when Corofin had won, Galway Bay came on the tannoy. A great, great song.
I know a load of auld lads from Tipp who went up to see Borris and they said during Covid that if it was to be their last day ever in Croker it was a grand way to bow out.
Was Ballyhale v Borrisileigh actually that good a game? Thought Ballyhale kept them at arms length throughout tbh. The Cuala v Na Piarsaigh games in 2018 were far more exciting.
It was a very good game. Everything you’d want in a final with players from both sides rising to the occasion.
Jerry Kelly for Borris and Paddy Mullen for Ballyhale had the games of their lives. Genuine greats of the game like Reid and Maher on either side and some stalwarts like Stapleton/McCormack/Fennelly x 2 and Holden mixed in. Two traditional teams playing proper hurling.
But I suppose some lads prefer watching the half rugby league/half basketball nonsense that seems to be all the vogue in Intercounty these days.
Ah just felt the result needed to be slightly more in doubt to be considered an all-time classic. The Munster final the previous November/December between Borrisileigh and Ballygunnar was a compelling and classic contest.
The winning point by Frankie Dolan that day was a thing of beauty.
The dexterity of the step-over, the steadying step or two and the execution off his left were poetry in motion. Ballymun blew it though you’d feel, given the start they had.
Surprisingly no sign of John Small on the match report for that game in 2013 at all. He’d have been 19 tipping 20 then I’d say and was featuring for Dublin by 2015. Strange he wasn’t involved.
His disciplinary issues may have seen him “out of bounds” for the final.
Edit….Research indicates that he has 1 Leinster club medal which would have been 2012 so he was either injured or OOB for the final.