Alan Gallagher has a lot resting on his shoulders this weekend. He won’t be the man snapping the ball for Penn State in the Croke Park Classic. He won’t be surging through to score a winning point for Kerry. He won’t be the man taking the heat for the fact that one of those activities will be in Croke Park and one in the Gaelic Grounds.
He will though be the man in charge of transforming Croke Park from an American Football venue watched by millions across the states up until 4-30pm on Saturday into a Gaelic football venue in front of what will be the biggest crowd of the year some 23 hours later.
Mammoth
It is nothing less than a mammoth undertaking and the credit that will accrue to the GAA and Ireland in a global context for pulling it off will long outlast the pain of sending the All Ireland replay west of the Shannon.
“It started straight after Sunday’s drawn game where we removed 115,000 litres of surface water from the pitch before it could get into the turf fully,” said Gallagher speaking yesterday to Sport for Business.
“We are turning a venue that is 144 metres long and 86 wide into a pitch for the Classic of 110 meters in length and only 45 wide.
“It will be painted as late as possible so that it looks great when you have the American football markings down on Saturday for the ESPN coverage and they are pretty much all gone when the RTE and Sky cameras are in for Sunday.”
“We’ve done three full trials of the best way to do it and we are confident that we have the optimum timings and the optimum paints to carry off what might have seemed an impossible task.”
Attention to Detail
“Attention to detail is critical for an undertaking like this but we have a great team of people that know what their part in the jigsaw is and who will deliver on the day.”
And on the night as it happens because much of the work will take place from when the stadium is cleared on Saturday until 10pm that night.
“We are a residential area so the lights have to go out,” continued Gallagher. “We will have holy checks to monitor progress and the flexibility to shift teams that might be ahead in one area to support those that might be behind in another.
“We have a check list of every input to how the stadium looks on Saturday and how each of those is to be reversed.”
Lockers
“It includes putting an additional 60 lockers into dressing rooms that will be gone without trace when Michael Murphy and Stephen Cluxton get kitted out on Sunday.”
“The team and I know the beat and the rhythm of the stadium. That’s important. We don’t need to hold anyone’s hand and this will be as much of an effort in skill and discipline as the lads show on the pitch in either of the games.”
“I know that that we will do everything that is needed to make this work and the whole process is being filmed as well so there is nowhere to hide.
Military
Gallagher comes from a military background. He knows that when you are faced with a problem you have to break it down and deal with each constituent part to get over it.
We saw the length of the list of inputs that have transformed the stadium to welcome 160 players, the Dublin Gospel Choir and two F16 fighter jets on Sunday. It is long. Reversing it will take as much a steely nerve as the Dublin Captain showed when winning the 2011 All Ireland with his free from the shadows of the Cusack Stand.
Spare a thought this weekend for Gallagher and his team. Pray it doesn’t rain too hard but be confident that even if it does, everything will be alright on the night, and the following afternoon.
