CORK AND KERRY football fans will be left disappointed that the Corn Uí Mhuirí (Munster colleges senior football) final replay has been fixed for a different venue and will clash with next Sunday’s Allianz football league game between Cork and Kerry.
Kerry’s PS Chorca Dhuibhne and Cork’s Rochestown College drew 1-10 apiece in last Saturday’s final. It might seem like the perfect curtain-raiser for next Sunday’s Cork and Kerry senior game in Páirc Uí Rinn at 2pm but instead it’ll be held almost 50 miles away in Rathmore in Kerry with a 1.30pm throw-in time.
So why isn’t the game being held at a different time and date to allow supporters take them both in?
And if the match has to be staged on Sunday, then why not as a curtain-raiser to Sunday’s match?
The Munster Post-Primary Schools Body have explained why the match is going ahead on Sunday:
“Comhairle Iarbhunscoileanna Na Mumhan would like to clarify that they attempted to avoid a clash of fixtures with the national league football game of Cork & Kerry.
“Due to circumstances in the schools, a date change wasn’t feasible and this binds the committee by rule to play the match as originally scheduled on the agreed replay date of the 8th March.”
So could it have been played in Páirc Uí Rinn before the senior showdown? It appears the proximity of the Cork stadium to Rochestown College, which is situated three miles away, in comparison to Dingle-based PS Chorca Dhuibhne, 95 miles from Páirc Uí Rinn, put paid to that suggestion.
“Comhairle Iarbhunscoilenna Na Mumhan has upheld it’s fixture procedure which state ‘that all fixtures will be played at a neutral venue with equal traveling distance for both teams unless otherwise agreed by both schools’.”
