Louth football manager Ger Brennan has criticised the decision to play his side's Leinster semi-final clash against Kildare at Tullamore.
Brennan’s main issue with the staging of the game at Glenisk O'Connor Park was the fixing of the Leinster League Division 2 final beforehand at the same venue, and the travel time that his team faced on match day.
The Leinster league fixture threw in at 11.45am and featured two Westmeath teams, Milltown and Rosemount.
The game ended in Division Two final success for Milltown on a 4-15- 1-13 scoreline.
But Louth manager Brennan said the curtain-raiser had an impact on his team’s meeting with Kildare soon after.
"I thought the decision to bring Louth and Kildare to Tullamore was a terrible decision," he told RTE Sport.
"There was an intermediate Leinster club final played beforehand which meant that two of the bigger dressing rooms at the ground were already being used.
"I spoke to Brian (Flanagan, Kildare manager) beforehand, Brian is a good lad, and all of us were squeezed into sardines into the dressing rooms that we got.
"I thought it was terrible to bring us there in the first place.
"And whoever granted access to an intermediate club final to be played beforehand, it was a terrible decision."
In a move that was widely embraced earlier this year Leinster GAA made the call to switch both provincial SFC semi-finals outside of Croke Park for the first time since 1995.
This call came on the back of last year's Leinster semi-final double-header attracting just over 21,000 at Croke Park making it the lowest attendance for that stage of the competition for 14 years.
The emptiness of the Croke Park stadium and the reduced atmosphere were factors in bringing this year’s semi-finals to Portlaoise and Tullamore.
This followed a ticket price cut of adult stand tickets for first-round games from €25 to €15.
Subsequently, Leinster GAA also unveiled a group pass for the semi-finals which were held at regional grounds including stand packages of €160 for 20 children (U16) and four adults and terrace packages of €150 for 20 children (U16) and four adults.
Brennan says he can see why the provincial council made a call to go outside HQ, but said their preference would have been to play at Croke Park.
"I can see why they would have brought games out but from a Louth and Kildare point of view, Kildare travelled 30 minutes to Tullamore while we travelled two hours," he said.
"It could have been played somewhere else. Croke Park would have been Louth’s preference, and I would have thought it would have been Kildare’s preference too.
"When you’re looking at Dublin (moving out of HQ) that’s an entirely different story."
Watch a provincial football final double-header, Kerry v Clare (1.45pm) and Mayo v Galway (4pm) on Sunday from 1.15pm. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1.
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