Con Cavan.I have never read such drivel and inaccurate statements in all my life. Has anybody ever been killled or injured in a "pitch invasion" in the last 100 years or so? Not one single person and it is just a load of scaremongering by Messers Cooney and Mc Kenna which is creating this hysteria. I recently read two very good articles by Joe Brolly and Declan Bogue and this will tell you why our leaders in Croke Park are so anxious to keep the ordinary supporters off the pitch. Would it be corporate pressure from our great sponsors to have a Champion League type celebration where their Ads can be flashed round every corner of this dear little Isle. Once again money dictates the agenda and I thought we were an Amateur organisation!!!!

BreffniDub (None) - Posts: 377 - 16/08/2010 18:12:11    747440

Every game in parnell park gates opened so fans can get on to the pitch safely.Never seen someone injured because everyone walks through an open gate with no stewards trying to stop them.Never a better site than croker after armagh won AI 2002.I am going to be on the pitch IFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF,dublin win the AI.Luckily i wont be in the hill if we get to the final so i wont be crushed

dubs4eva (Dublin) - Posts: 484 - 16/08/2010 20:51:46    747636

Con Cavan.I have never read such drivel and inaccurate statements in all my life. Has anybody ever been killled or injured in a "pitch invasion" in the last 100 years or so? Not one single person and it is just a load of scaremongering by Messers Cooney and Mc Kenna which is creating this hysteria. I recently read two very good articles by Joe Brolly and Declan Bogue and this will tell you why our leaders in Croke Park are so anxious to keep the ordinary supporters off the pitch. Would it be corporate pressure from our great sponsors to have a Champion League type celebration where their Ads can be flashed round every corner of this dear little Isle. Once again money dictates the agenda and I thought we were an Amateur organisation!!!!

__________________________________________________________________
I'm talking drivel. Your arguement is backed up by two "very good articles" and a conspiracy theory surrounding the suppression of the ordinary decent supporter by the tri axis of evil, Cooney, McKenna and wealthy corporate sponsors. Only a few weeks ago there were 21 people killed at festival in Germany due to the negligence of event organisers. Thats what Croke will be, if a person is killed or seriously injured during a pitch invasion, negligent!

At least I got a good laugh out of your post. Now, I better get the tinfoil hat out, I'm going for a stout.

Con Cavan (Cavan) - Posts: 894 - 16/08/2010 21:17:54    747673

breffni


I'd say you're spot on with that analysis

ochonlir (Cavan) - Posts: 4343 - 16/08/2010 21:28:40    747684

con con con

I'm glad you're going for a stout you need it!

have a good 'un

ochonlir (Cavan) - Posts: 4343 - 16/08/2010 21:46:19    747708

I see Paddy Heaney has written a long article on the dangers of fencing people in at football matches and exposing the reverse logic of the GAA hierarchy.

Good to see Benny Coulter too coming out against this political correctness gone mad .

BIG SACKS (Tyrone) - Posts: 1681 - 17/08/2010 10:59:53    747839

Ok Admin i will say it another way. I will not let any of my children stand behind the wire on Hill 16 and i bet none of the children of the G.A.A. bosses will be there either !!

Cavan_Slasher (Cavan) - Posts: 10253 - 17/08/2010 11:35:32    747883

Eddie Brennan and D.J. Carey also against the fences !! Have the G.A.A. bosses backed themselves into a corner on this ?

Cavan_Slasher (Cavan) - Posts: 10253 - 17/08/2010 11:57:03    747919

Eddie Brennan and D.J. Carey also against the fences !! Have the G.A.A. bosses backed themselves into a corner on this ?

Cavan_Slasher (Cavan) - Posts: 10253 - 17/08/2010 11:57:30    747922

Eddie Brennan and D.J. Carey also against the fences !! Have the G.A.A. bosses backed themselves into a corner on this ?

Cavan_Slasher (Cavan) - Posts: 10253 - 17/08/2010 11:57:37    747923

I read Paddy Heaney's article and its long, i'll give it that. Nothing new or insightful to add to the debate however.

Simple fact of the matter is...

(1) GAA has to move with the times and the so called Plan A has been treated with derision and jocularity. Move to erect fence in the face of non-support.
(2) The GAA flat earth society has decided that tradition is much more important than safety and is gathering support for a mass movement of civil disobedience.

This will not end well if cool heads do not prevail, I know that all County Boards were given the same presentation as was shown at Congress in Newcastle. Should it be shown at every club?

caughtredhanded (Tyrone) - Posts: 602 - 17/08/2010 12:06:38    747939

Breffnidub is correct if not tip-toeish about it. The history of injuries/fatalities in pitch invasions simply doesn't exist. As opposed to the history of fenced in supporters which has led to many injuries and deaths through the eras.

I can appreciate the pro-poster's points of view here & I do realise they are keeping the safety of people in mind which is commendable but the argument for the fencing in of supporters is just not standing up here, in my opinion.

gigoer (Wexford) - Posts: 1998 - 17/08/2010 12:24:50    747958

Caughtredhanded,

Forget about other sports !! We have our own traditions in the G.A.A. and players are now coming out in support of having supporters on the field as they are part of the game and entitled to congratulate the winners or commiserate with the losers !! Our tradition !!

Have you got the fencing contract yourself ?

Cavan_Slasher (Cavan) - Posts: 10253 - 17/08/2010 12:42:02    747982

Has anyone ever seen an American football college game. In terms of fans association with the team, it is somewhat similar to GAA in that it is amature and fans inherit their teams from their families and localities. America is also one of the most heath and safety and litigious societies in the world. After most big games there is a pitch invasion and it is done in safe manner. I even saw a game a number of years ago between Notre Dame and Michigan where there was a pitch invasion, the referee reasise that there was still some time on the clock, and they got everyone off the pitch again to play the last few seconds. I'm not suggesting we copy this model, just saying that pitch invasion can be done in a perfectly safe manner if properly planned. The GAA's problem is that it has become obsessed with copying soccer and rugby rather than standing up for ther own games and working with their own traditions.

onlyhurling (Galway) - Posts: 800 - 17/08/2010 12:58:09    748009

get with the programme lads will yeah.. what arena in the world with cap 80000 has a terrace. dont know why the didnt seat it in the first place... if it was seated ,, there would be no crushing as every seat would be allocated and fences wont be a problem... dont know why people wont stay of the pitch anyway... soccer fans and rugby fans didnt go on to the pitch when they used it.. only in ireland

drogheda20 (Louth) - Posts: 405 - 17/08/2010 13:00:50    748016

Derfil1 Kildare---
Sorry to burst your bubble there but was Graham Geraghty and the Meath team of 1999 not the first team to accept Sam in the middle of the field on champions league type podium?? I think the Meath fans stayed off the field when asked to after that Final,so whats the big deal now,if it was done like clockwork that day?

dickie10 (UK) - Posts: 910 - 17/08/2010 13:22:06    748058

This issue really vexes me..
Some facts
1. Soccer fans do go on to the Pitches.... at the end of every season... the clubs involved in relegation and promotion have the fans run on to the pitch to celebrate....

2. In the GAA history..For years in Croke Park...when there was overcrowding in the terraces... they placed the fans along the sidelines while the game was going on...... this was common sense

3. There were people killed in Germany a few weeks ago at a festival because too many people were coralled into a small tunnell... Putting people into a small area causes deaths.... putting them onto a wide open pitch does not do this... putting them up against a fence causes deaths...

The GAA should put stewards onto the steps on the Hill and allow the people at the front onto the pitch and then allow others to access the pitch in a piece by piece way.

Final fact.... the bigger the access onto the pitch the less chance of an injury... what the suits in Croke Park want to do is to reduce the access by putting up fences.. THIS WILL CAUSE INJURIES

Farney (Monaghan) - Posts: 824 - 17/08/2010 13:27:39    748065

I've been a steward in Croke Park for some time now, and speaking to other people who do it as well, this issue is pushing many of us to the point where we're thinking of just giving up.

The fact is this: pitch invasions are dangerous. People lose the run of themselves completely and act without due care for themselves or anyone else. It's this, more than anything else that creates the problem. People won't listen to the stewards, they won't listen to the stadium management and this is why the options are so limited - it has to be all or nothing, because people don't seem able to hear any appeal. You don't know what it's like to watch the wave of people coming down on top of you, screaming at you with pressure and momentum building behind them. It's very frightening.

At this stage, it's gone beyond celebration. People are there now to make a point - a point about how you won't stop them doing whatever they want, a point about how little respect they have for you.

It's dangerous for the patrons, and it's also dangerous for the stewards. I don't need people kicking at my arms and face if we have to hold the orange plastic up, I don't need people knocking into me and shoving me if Plan B is called. I'm a volunteer and frankly, I don't need the hassle. We don't want to see fences - nobody does. We don't want our arms broken by a swift kick from some old lad. We don't want the verbal abuse. Why should we tolerate it?

We take the abuse on the day, on these forums and in the newspapers from the likes of Tom Humphries. But ultimately, we take the responsibilities we have seriously. Everyone dreads an accident. I know that goes for the stadium management too - I don't think it'd be any use to Peter McKenna at all if he was standing in a coroner's court explaining why the GAA allowed a situation to go ahead which they knew could cause a fatality if all he had to say was, "well, it was too much hassle to prevent it, so we said what harm? It's only the one lad..." It's grand for the big boys here to be all sanguine about it when they won't be standing there being asked to account for how their actions and planning failed to prevent the death of a person to whom they have a duty of care. All it takes is for one person to trip crossing that low wall in front of the stands and they could easily be trampled, and getting any help to them would be all but impossible in the rush. That's where I'd be, standing helplessly by as people refuse to listen to requests to stop and let the ambulance services in. How could I live with that?

Listen, ye may well end up keeping your tradition of running on to the pitch at the end of the match. Great for you if you do. The tradition of volunteers being able to steward these events may well be lost in the process.

It's really up to the GAA public to decide which tradition matters more.

Kat (Dublin) - Posts: 17 - 17/08/2010 13:42:10    748105

+1 for Kat.

Post of the thread.

hurling_lad (Cork) - Posts: 69 - 17/08/2010 14:28:25    748190

well written from the point of view that there should be no on pitch celebrations


if it was allowed the gentleman wouldn't have to hold up the orange plastic and the plan b option would be actually plan a

very emotive but if twenty people die because of the fences being erected how would that go down in the coroner's court

ochonlir (Cavan) - Posts: 4343 - 17/08/2010 14:42:27    748214