Mike Finnerty
A LEADING Mayo GAA official has admitted that a pitch invasion at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park in Castlebar after last Saturday evening’s National League match between Mayo and Galway ‘was a little bit frustrating’ for the event organisers.
County Board delegates were told last week that people attending last weekend’s game would be asked to stay off the pitch in order to try and protect the playing surface.
That message was repeated on a number of occasions by their stadium announcer at the venue on Saturday, but thousands of children and adults streamed on to the pitch after the full-time whistle in Mayo’s draw with Galway.
Mayo GAA secretary, Ronan Kirrane, has now called on fans to ‘co-operate’ for the upcoming home National League games against Kerry, Tyrone and Monaghan.
“I would ask supporters to come, watch and enjoy. Enjoy every single minute of the games,” he told The Mayo News last night.
“Mayo have fantastic supporters and they turned out in huge numbers again last Saturday night and really added to the occasion.
“But every player, from every team, deserves a good pitch to play on and we’re just trying to protect the surface on the pitch at Hastings Insurance MacHale Park at the moment.
“It’s to protect the pitch and give players a bit of time to themselves after a game and also from a Health and Safety point of view,” he added.
“You can see how people are excited after a match, and there’s a feelgood factor around going out on to the pitch, but it’s definitely a little bit frustrating for us.
“We’re relying on people’s co-operation to not come on to the field. We don’t have the manpower to have stewards all around the field, and that’s not something we would be doing anyway. We really want people to listen to the announcements and stay off the pitch.
“After the last home league match against Monaghan, certainly that’s something we could look at.”
