THE collapsed camera gantry behind the goals at the town end was enough to confirm that the decision to postpone the Armagh senior football championship final until next Saturday at 6pm was the sensible one.
Finalists Clan na Gael and Clann Eireann had arrived at the Athletic Grounds when the call – influenced by police advice on health and safety grounds - was made.
By the time the scheduled throw-in time came, the wind whistling through the deserted stands and the celebrations of intermediate champions Carrickcruppen were all that could be heard.
“To be honest, I think sense has prevailed,” said Clann Eireann manager Ruairi Lavery.
“It was getting worse before it was getting better and I feel a bit sorry for the St Paul’s and Carrickcruppen guys having to try play through that.
“The police came in and advised on health and safety grounds and once that happens you just have to go with that advice.
“We had prepared for the conditions but we’ll regroup and go back to the training ground.
“It probably will affect our preparation in that, by all accounts, it’s to be calmer and more settled next week and that does change your line-up, your thinking, your tactics… But we were ready today and we’ll be ready next week too.
“When you’re preparing for a game and the weather forecast is like it is today it absolutely impacts on how you want to play and how you want to set up.
“If the game is played in settle conditions next weekend then it comes down to who is the best team on the day and I suppose for a spectacle and a contest that’s what everybody wants.”
Like Lavery, Ronan McMahon had his Clan na Gael team ready for battle and he’d have been approaching the Athletic Grounds mulling over long-ball and kick-out strategies with and without the wind.
McMahon was disappointed of course but he accepted that the decision to postpone the eagerly-awaited encounter – the first all-Lurgan duel since 1968 – had been made for the “right reasons”.
“You have to defer to the people who make these decisions based on the health and safety of the people who are coming to the game,” he said.
“It’s not easy for us or Clann Eireann and ultimately these decisions aren’t made lightly. It’s not as if postponing the game suits anybody and it’s frustrating and deflating and all those things but thankfully nobody was injured and we’ll get at it next weekend.”
Had the game gone ahead, the wind howling down the field would have made kicking the ball out from the goals at the town end virtually impossible. The elements would have dictated the tactics and the result which, given the talent in both teams, would not have been an unsatisfactory scenario.
“It would have been chaotic with that kind of wind,” said McMahon.
“I suppose whenever you know that it’s going to be like that all you’re doing is getting to the game and then you try to manage it as best you can. I met Ruairi Lavery in the tunnel area after the game was called off and all we could say was that we were powerless over the decision. We just had to accept it and move on.
“We’ll get back next weekend and if the weather’s a bit more favourable then maybe it will be a better spectacle for supporters. Clann Eireann will feel that they were ready for it, as did we, but ultimately people make these decisions based on health and safety so we’ll get over our bit of deflation and go again.”
