Derry manager Damian Cassidy had expressed concern about the standard of the pitch at Ballinascreen; and with the surface at Bellaghy regarded as one of the best in the county, the Derry County Board has moved the game accordingly.
Unsurprisingly, this decision has caused some consternation in the Draperstown area, with St. Colm's Chairman Lawrence Cleary making his feelings clear in the backpage of today's Irish News:
"We are really disappointed. I cannot understand how they can make a decision on a pitch 18 days before the match. At the end of the day, Derry beat Westmeath by 14 points and they scored 1-18. I can’t see what the problem is. We spent a lot money in our preparations for these matches. We put in new fencing and built new dugouts. We are really annoyed about this."It is easy to sympathise with Ballinascreen. The Westmeath game was run in excellent fashion, and they will have had preparations in place for the arrival of Kerry. But the Derry management team are entitled to have their players play in the best conditions possible; especially at the beginning of a hectic month in which the Oakleafers will play four games in 21 days. If this means playing Kerry on a firm surface at Bellaghy then we should accept this as being beneficial to the Derry Senior footballers.
The choice of NFL venues has caused problems in other counties in the past. It seems to be a perennial issue in Donegal, where their most recent NFL game against Mayo was moved from Ballyshannon to Letterkenny (and also from a Saturday evening throw-in to an afternoon throw-in) just so that O'Donnell Park could see some inter-county action this season. That was a minor problem compared to 2007 however, when a League match against Fermanagh in Ballybofey had to move dates because it clashed with Mass!
Now there's a lenten sacrifice...
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