All roads lead to St Conleth's Park now.
Amongst all the madness, you'd have to feel for the Mayo players the most. If the Kildare lads were in limbo, the Mayo players were in no-man's land altogether.
Three days before a crunch qualifier clash, it was completely out of their control where the game would be played. On top of that, they couldn't even be sure if the game was going to go ahead at all.
At least the Lilywhite men had a battle to distract themselves from all of the madness.
https://twitter.com/SportsJOE_GAA/status/1011919726723915777
What has been lost in all of this is that the players are the most important stakeholders of all. They are the ones who dedicate their lives to ensuring that they are in 100% peak fitness on game day.
What's fair for them should always be the primary concern in situations like this one. When the GAA moved this game from Newbridge to Croke Park on the grounds of St Conleth's Park not having a sufficient capacity, they went against fairness and they didn't take the Kildare players side into account first.
Much a do about nothing and the game is now back to the time, date and venue it was fixed for after the Monday morning qualifier draw.
Now the supporters are the ones in limbo. Hordes of supporters had bought tickets in the meantime for the Croke Park double header.
Mayo GAA have issued a statement to attempt to clarify it all up for those supporters. They have assured supporters that all season ticket holders should be catered for.
A small number of tickets will be available via Supervalu and other ticket outlets and for those who had already purchased their tickets, the book stops with Croke Park.
The statement reads as follows.
"We note that the Mayo v Kildare Round 3 qualifier has now been for St Conleth’s Park, Newbridge, at 7pm, on Saturday.
Mayo GAA is awaiting full details from the GAA in relation to tickets for this fixture. We expect that all Mayo GAA season ticket holders will get access to a ticket for this game. There may also be a very limited number of tickets on sale to the general public through SuperValu and Centra outlets.
In relation to supporters who had purchased tickets for the game in Croke Park on Saturday evening, we are awaiting details from Croke Park, who handle all ticket arrangements for this game.
The Mayo team and management have this week been preparing to play Kildare on Saturday and look forward to having a passionate Mayo support in Newbridge on Saturday evening."
Updates to follow on Croke Park decision...
