Any chance of Dublin "Fans" getting to a match on time

munster30

What's the story with the Dublin fans who believe a match will start when it suits themselves. Why was Saturday's game delayed 15 minutes? Will the GAA now have to fix the semi, around whatever game Sky are showing on the day to allow the dubs support their first love, manure or Liverpool?

whiskeyman

oh moan moan anti Dub this and that.
If you were actually there, you would have seen the Hill was jammed by at least 3:50.
And how do you know it was just Dubs that were late? I saw many maroon lakesiders wandering in well after 4.

Simple fact is, the Dubs bring a sell out crowd to Croker, unlike any other county, thus giving a greater likelyhood that it's going to take longer for the 80,000 or so fans to take their seat.... no matter what county their from.

Get over it... (you from Meath by any chance? hee hee)

connundrum

Had they not delayed the match by 15 minutes you can nearly be sure that there would have been injuries to members of the public.

I can guarantee that the delay was nothing to do with the GAA, RTE or anyone else.. it was the security specialists who analysed the crowd movement and decided it would be best for all to delay the throw in.

Did the 15 minutes make much of a difference to you?

And... ditto what whiskeyman said!

Dapos

Well then the fans should know then that they need to be in croker earlier. There is a curtain raiser on before match anyway. It is very unfair on players anyway that match is delayed. Also it's the fact it is consistently happening that is annoying.

stepbar

It only seems to happen when dublin is involved..... :rolleyes: Lets hope they are not late for the All Ireland Final (that is assuming you get to it).
Its hard to know how the GAA are going to deal with this, County board fine perhaps? Restriction on opening time of pubs in the surrounding area before the match?

Culchie

stepbar wrote:

It only seems to happen when dublin is involved..... :rolleyes: Lets hope they are not late for the All Ireland Final (that is assuming you get to it).
Its hard to know how the GAA are going to deal with this, County board fine perhaps? Restriction on opening time of pubs in the surrounding area before the match?

Can't see how they can affect the 'civil liberties' of the general public and close the pubs down.

One thing they could do though is bring forward the throw in to 12 O'Clock midday....hard to see RTE swallow that though.

It's fifteen minutes!

chill out..

mobby

Yeah its that time again anti-dub crowd hate to see us win so its moan and groan time, Pitch invasions never a problem for any other county to do but when the Dubs are playing its not allowed, I was in Croke Park Saturday arrived in my seat before 3pm BTW, the ground to me seemed full by 3.45pm but i dont know what was happening outside. Its also not just a Dublin thing I have been at matches involving Northen teams that have also not started on time. The match before hand did not have much intrest for either Dublin or Westmeath so i presume the vast majority of the crowd tried to enter the ground between 3.30/4pm, anyway PG the Dubs will go all the way to The Final and annoy the anti -dubs even more.

bennyc

in fairness the Dub fans are usually in on time, its the other 55,000 sunshine supporters that hold the hole show up....

speck

Have to agree with benny c. Been to every Dub match and never been late.Half the people around me who did come in late it was their first time in croker.Everyone should stop hating the dubs just because who they are and actually look at how they are playing....

whiskeyman

bennyc wrote:

in fairness the Dub fans are usually in on time, its the other 55,000 sunshine supporters that hold the hole show up....

Have to admit, I was a sunshine supporter once upon a time, but I loved it so much and have taken a great interest in the game since.
Don't go to hard on them. Besides, Would you rather Croker to be half empty come matchday with only the die hard fans?

Carcharodon

To be fair, this one cant just be stuck on the dub fans, i think its a problem that has to do with the GAA as a whole.
It happened in Killarney a couple of weeks ago and that wasn't the only time it happene there.
Its also occured at other venues around the country i think, where Dublin weren't involved

oh while were Dub bashing,

Down with Dubs booo

Dapos

Carcharodon wrote:

To be fair, this one cant just be stuck on the dub fans, i think its a problem that has to do with the GAA as a whole.
It happened in Killarney a couple of weeks ago and that wasn't the only time it happene there.
Its also occured at other venues around the country i think, where Dublin weren't involved

oh while were Dub bashing,

Down with Dubs booo

Ya but the incident in killarney was down to traffic problems with all the longfors people going to match. Dubs problem is they stay in pubs too late. I just think it's bad form and it needs to be stopped before other counties follow this trend

bennyc

Basically what I find is that the distance from The Big tree or Quinns to the Hogan is nothing but to make your way round to the Cusaic is a fair enough walk.
Funny one at the Game last week I bumped into 5 or 6 Armagh lads walking around the entrance at the hogan they were pretty steamed up shouting abuse to everyone round them I believe "Bunch of Free State Bs" was one line . Then asked me (Donegal Jersey on BTW) alright Buddy which stand is the Hill 16 on :eek: . I gladly pointed them in the direction of the Cusic the long way round.

The Rooster

Its happened in most games up and down the country that had sell-out or near sell-out crowds this year. Its an Irish affliction rather than a Dublin one - its just that Dublin are involved in most of the high profile sell out games.

The GAA also brought in a double ticket check for this game. All tickets were individualy scanned first and then you had to queue up again to go through the turnstiles. The crowd were all (98%) in by 4.05pm for the Offaly game, it was nearly 4.15pm for the Westmeath game - I'd put the difference down to the extra layer of queueing.

Too many people do have the same bright idea of trying to get in for 3.55 - but as I say thats a general GAA supporter thing, not a Dublin thing.

And Derry - Donegal was not a curtain raiser in any meaningful sense. It had practically zero interest in those two counties, it definitely had zero interest to Dublin supporters (albeit I did see most of the second half, but it was not a contest). The Derry lads didnt even seem all that bothered, didnt even do a lap of honour.

thegills

The delay was due to the fact that word spread around the Westmeath supporters that the Gardai were clamping illegally parked country cars around the ground. All the boys subsequently bailed out of Croker to try and move their cars - have you ever tried running in wellies??

aonfocaleile

I was queuing to get into the ground from about 3.30 - didn't make it in until just after 4. It was manic outside and although everyone was nice and orderly in the queue, it was so packed I didn't feel 100% safe. If the game had gone ahead at 4, there would've been a mad rush to get in and peoples safety would have been in danger. There was only 2 guards around and I shudder to think what would've happened if there had been a (c)rush. Dunno what it was like at other entrances but at the Hogan it seemed the extra layer of ticketing caused everything to move very slowly....

Smellyirishman

The problem is that it's happening every time now, so people are expecting a 15 minute delay and turning up for that! They need to bite the bullet and start the games at 4, tough sh1t to those that arrive late.

Flukey

This happens up and down the country all the time. None of us have ever been at a match at which eveyone was there on time. Go to any sports event it is the same. This is human, not Dublin, nature. The vast majority are there on time. Many that are late getting in are not deliberately late. The nearer you get to the beginning of any sports event, the larger the crowd trying enter, the slower it gets.

There was one large delay last year, with a huge crowd of Dublin fans getting in late. The reality of that however was that there was no curtain raiser, which would bring in a lot of the crowd earlier, so the timeframe for people entering was shorter. As a result the queues were longer and the crowds were slower.

As people have already pointed out, and I have, matches are delayed all the time. There have been a number this year. They did not involve Dublin. These decisions are made by the security and safety people. If the game is delayed slightly it reduces the crowd pushing trying to get in, thinking they are going to miss it. I'll sign off with one thought which only needs one word: Hillsborough.

Nalced_irl

Ah yea, another Dublin match, another whining thread. I got to the Hill at about 3:50 or just before it and found it hard to find a place as i was delayed getting in. It was packed at that stage apart from the corner by the Cusack stand.

Carcharodon

Dapos wrote:

Ya but the incident in killarney was down to traffic problems with all the longfors people going to match. Dubs problem is they stay in pubs too late. I just think it's bad form and it needs to be stopped before other counties follow this trend

Didnt realise it was that, maybe once they start games on time and people are late, people will naturally come early so as to avoid missing it.
Once you start accomodating people, they get used to and expect it, just let people learn the hard way.

I know there are saety issues but comparing it to Hillsborough is a bit extreme, i think some injury could be caused to people maybe but nothing to that extreme

UnitedIrishman

If only the GAA would actually just start the game and let those in the pubs suffer. If it happened just once, then it wouldn't happen again.