Mayo-Dublin game ‘more than likely’ won’t be in Croke Park - Kirrane

THE Secretary of Mayo GAA has said that Mayo’s All-Ireland Series game against Dublin will ‘more than likely’ not be in Croke Park.

Ronan Kirrane told The Mayo News yesterday evening (Monday) that the Mayo team had ‘no problem playing anywhere’ but that a venue other than Croke Park would be preferable for supporters.

“I spoke with Croke Park last week and the venue of it will depend on what happens this weekend in the Mayo-Roscommon game. But more than likely it won’t be in Croke Park,” Kirrane told The Mayo News.

Séamus Touhy, Chairman of Mayo GAA, told club delegates at Wednesday night’s county board meeting that Mayo had made representations to the GAA not to play the game in Croke Park.

Mayo’s third-round All-Ireland Series clash with the All-Ireland champions is due to be played at a ‘neutral venue’.

However, it has been argued that Croke Park should not be designated as a neutral venue when Dublin are involved.

At the weekend, Dublin designated Croke Park as their ‘home venue’ when they defeated Roscommon on a score of 2-19 to 0-13.

“We played our home game in Castlebar, so our neutral game will not be in Castlebar. Dublin’s neutral game will not be in Croke Park,” added Kirrane.

The Davitts clubman said that the venue would depend on the results of this weekend’s games between Mayo and Roscommon and Cavan and Dublin.

The team that tops the group of four will automatically qualify for the All-Ireland quarter-finals while the second and third-placed teams will face a preliminary quarter-final.

“If Mayo were to lose against Roscommon there’d be more on the line for the last game and there might be more people travelling to it than is the case if Mayo beat Roscommon and if Dublin beat Cavan. Effectively people might look at it and say ‘I’ll save my money for the next spin down the road,’” Kirrane said.

On Saturday, former Dublin Philly McMahon suggested that playing Dublin in Croke Park may have been ‘the worst possible scenario’ for Mayo.

Writing in the Irish Independent, McMahon suggested that the county board had requested the game not be played there to ‘avoid the wrath of their own for being passive about an emotive issue’.

When these comments were put to Kirrane, he replied: “Mayo have no problem playing anywhere. But at the same time Mayo supporters are travelling up and down the country, up to venues in the north, down south. We’ve been in Tyrone this year and Monaghan, there is a lot of expense on Mayo supporters.

“We would look at it from a supporters’ point of view in these challenging times with the cost of everything. Mayo have no problem playing wherever,” he added.

Mayo’s last championship game against Dublin in Croke Park ended in a 0-11 to 2-17 defeat in Kevin McStay’s first year in charge.

McStay’s men will face Roscommon in the second round of the All-Ireland Series on Saturday, in Dr Hyde Park at 5pm. The game will be streamed live on GAA GO.

Mayo have already beaten Davy Burke’s Roscommon twice, in both the league and Connacht championship, so far this year.

Mayo GAA Chairman, Séamus Touhy, told The Mayo News in 2022 that Mayo fans liked travelling to Croke Park after an All-Ireland qualifier against Kildare was controversially fixed for Croke Park.