The width of the pitch at Healy Park, Omagh, will not become a topic of controversy for the second year in a row, insists Omagh St Enda's club chairman, Conor Salley.
Last summer there was much speculation, later backed up by photographic evidence on the week of the Super 8s game against Tyrone, that the pitch width had been significantly narrowed with theories suggesting it would deny Dublin the width their gameplan requires.
At the time, Tyrone manager Mickey Harte claimed it was a requirement of matchday broadcaster SKY TV, a claim later denied by the company.
On the evening of the match itself, the tighter confines of the pitch seemed to catch some unawares. Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton sent four kickouts out of play over the sideline.
Salley said, "This week, the pitch is being sanded and Verti-Drained, which will remove the lines from it. It will have to be lined then this weekend for the Tyrone-Mayo Ladies qualifier. So the lines will remain on it then."
Pitches for Gaelic games can be anywhere between 80 and 90 metres wide, but ongoing difficulties with the pitch at Healy Park, where the players exit the tunnel and there is heavy footfall, caused the club to take the pitch in earlier this year.
"During this year's league, the pitch was actually in about a metre to a metre and a half because of difficulties we had with the playing surface just in front of the tunnel," explained Salley.
"At the start of the year it had been narrower, from the start of the year the pitch would have been narrower for health and safety reasons. We now have that re-turfed and moved back out again.
"Quite often, the pitches are lined with different with reasons in mind.
"I know last year for the Monaghan game, the BBC had requested that the pitch be taken in to facilitate the cameras on the far side.
"SKY had talked about it, about the requirements to possibly move the pitch in, but when it was looked at, it wasn’t required."
Omagh St Enda’s have already begun preparations for the game on the weekend of 3/4 August, as club officials are expecting a capacity crowd.
