KILDARE HAVE ACCEPTED the GAA’s decision not to stage Saturday’s All-Ireland U20 football final in Croke Park.
The Lilywhites face Tyrone in the game at Páirc Seán MacDiarmada in Carrick-on-Shannon, after initially voicing their displeasure the game won’t be played in Croke Park.
Three of the previous four U20 All-Ireland football finals were contested on Jones’ Road and over the weekend Brian Flanagan expressed his belief that the game should be played in the venue.
But Flanagan says Kildare have accepted the decision after initially speaking up behalf of the players.
“From the players’ point of view, they wanted to play in Croke Park so they asked us to try and get the match there,” said the Johnstownbridge clubman at an EirGrid preview event.
“That’s why we took the fight for 48 hours. But once the GAA made the decision on Monday morning and announced the game was in Carrick, our sole focus since then has been on winning this match in Carrick at the weekend.
“We’ve no issue travelling or playing there. The venue issue, we fought it for two days but that’s it. It’s done, it’s parked and it hasn’t been a distraction whatsoever for the group.
“You just have to park it. Once the decision was made that was it, we moved on. We’re lucky that our group of lads are very composed, they’re very mature. So when they expressed a desire, we fought the fight and we parked it and we’ve all moved on since.”
Tyrone likewise would have preferred the game was held in Croke Park.
“As lads growing up we all had a desire to play in Croke Park,” said manager Paul Devlin.
“That’s a bit input in keeping you playing football, you’ve coaches all through the years saying someday you’ll have a chance to play in Croke Park. If they had that chance yes they’d make it and look forward to playing it. But it’s not going to be here and there’s nothing really we can do about it.
“We you look out and see the facility and the condition Croke Park is in, it would be perfect for the game. But full credit to Carrick they’ve taken it on we’re fully behind Carrick having the game. We’ll get on and get playing then, it’s good for Carrick to get an All-Ireland final.”
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