County boards prepared to stop pitch invasions

Following the incident in last week’s Tyrone county final when fans took to the field to celebrate Dungannon’s Senior Championship victory, boards from across Ulster have took efforts to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen this weekend.

Ulster council released a statement on Monday that said that while protocols have been adhered to throughout the province, in Tyrone protocols were breached, as were public health guidelines.

Gaelic Life contacted a number of county boards who are due to have county finals played this weekend.

They have said that they are going to make sure a repeat of what happened in Omagh at the Tyrone county final will not happen.

The Cavan county board told Gaelic Life : “Every measure will be taken to avoid a pitch invasion. Spectators will be notified of this on receipt of ticket.”

Donegal county board are currently dealing with a coronovirus situation, when a player tested positive. As a result they have postponed their senior county final, which was due to be played this weekend, to October 7.

Before that happened, the county board said: “We will have fewer at the game as per our Covid restrictions in the Republic as compared to the six counties.

“Secondly, we are using additional stewards to control access to the pitch at the end of the game.

“Thirdly, if the weather allows it we have plans for confining spectators to certain areas and the County grounds being used are sufficiently large to enable this and still have social distancing.”

Those restrictions will be in place when the final is played .

Meanwhile, in Down, the senior hurling replay final is fixed for this weekend.

They have already played their football finals and have not had a problem.

The county board PRO said: “At the three finals last weekend we had no supporters on the field for the presentation. We had a mobile stage set up facing the crowd with the captain/captains receiving the trophies on the stage and the teams lined up behind them.

“There were some stewards at the gates to stop supporters getting on.”