GAA's 1st round double-header in Croke a right Royal cock-up.

Byline: BERNARD FLYNN 

THE GAA committed marketing suicide last week by staging two first round Leinster Championship games in Croke Park.

The one thing I wished for at the start of the year was that the hierarchy would go back to basics and take the early rounds of the Leinster Championship back out to the provincial grounds.

I took my three kids to Croke Park last Sunday and by half-time in the Meath v Carlow match there was no more than six or seven thousand people there.

It was an open, barren, cold place with an eerie atmosphere and all it did was make people want to leave.

Having 21,000 people (in fact it was probably under 20,000 by the time you took the corporate people out of it) in an 82,000 seater stadium was sheer marketing madness.

Gone are the days when Kildare or Meath brought 20,000 on their own.

People's finances and commitments have changed in the past year or so and if the GAA top brass had a bit of vision, they would see that.

It takes all of 200 euro to take a family of four up to Dublin for a match by the time you pay for tickets, petrol and a bite to eat. A lot of people don't have that kind of spare cash anymore.

The GAA need to reach out to the grassroots and bring these matches out to places like Tullamore and Navan.

Why not pack the place out and have those grounds jammed to the rafters with 20-25,000 supporters.

It would generate a great atmosphere - the kind of occasion which would make us all sense that Championship football has arrived. And think how good it would look on TV.

Let's hope that next year, they get it right.

Monaghan, many peoples' contenders for Ulster, face a very tough first round match against Fermanagh tomorrow.

I have studied Monaghan in great detail this year watching them four times during the league and contrary to what many people believe, I think they are in no-mans land in football terms.

They have arrived at a point like a lot of teams do, such as Westmeath, Kildare and Laois in recent years, but they cannot take it to the next level.

When teams like Kerry, Armagh, Tyrone or Meath start to build a team of promise they can take it on but Monaghan are struggling.

They have a great work-ethic, are very well organised and have a decent game-plan and Seamus McEnaney has done a great job with them.

But the simple truth is that they have quite a number of average players that will prevent them joining the top tier.

They have three main areas of concern. When Tommy Freeman is held they haven't scored enough from open play and if Fermanagh mark him tightly and put a sweeper in front of him, as Dublin and Westmeath did, they are in trouble.

There has to be a question mark over their mobility in midfield and if rumours are true that Eoin Lennon has a foot injury, then he will be a massive loss if not fully fit.

They don't have a lot of height in the full-back line and unless they address those things, they won't win Ulster.

Monaghan football needs an Ulster title in the bag to say they've arrived.

But I don't think they're nearly as good as they or the media believe and teams are starting to regard them as a one-trick pony.

If they lost two or three of their top players, they would struggle to win an Ulster Championship match.

I still think they'll be good enough to get past Fermanagh, simply because the Fermanagh's forwards won't be able to punch enough holes in what is the strongest part of the Monaghan team - a defence which hunts in packs.

But if Fermanagh get running at them and play with that carefree spirit of theirs, they'll make it a very interesting game.

Monaghan can't take Fermanagh for granted, but defeat tomorrow would be a catastrophe for this Monaghan team.

They should edge it, but by no more than a couple of points.

CAPTION(S):

DESERTED: Pauric Bambrick tackles Meath star Graham Geraghty in front of the empty seats in Croke Park last Sunday