Mayo GAA determined to keep fans off playing surface once and for all

Mayo GAA chairman Seamus Tuohy has voiced fresh concerns over spectators entering the pitch at MacHale Park at the end of matches.

He elaborated: “Keeping people off the pitch when games are over is crucially important.

"If we can’t protect the pitch now in this wet spell, then we will have to move games out of MacHale Park during the summer and that is the reality.

"Our ground staff spent hours preparing the pitch for the game against Dublin.

“All we can do is keep appealing to people not to enter the pitch after games.

"Stewards have been challenged and there have been one or two unsavoury incidents over the last couple of years.”

Gerry Burke, Mayo GAA’s chief steward at MacHale Park, has appealed to the local media to highlight the fact that patrons are not allowed enter the pitch at Mayo GAA HQ.

“Two or three years ago after a match, a child was at the tunnel who was lost.

"Thankfully the little boy in question could remember his father’s phone number.

‘We will do everything that we can to keep patrons off the ground, but there will be some who will be determined to get past you to get autographs.

"I know that our PRO (Paul Cunnane) has done an awful lot of work, and he organised the meet and greet with the players at the back of the stand after the charity game against Offaly at MacHale Park last December.”