The Dublin and Cavan players had scarcely left the field after their All-Ireland football semi-final last Saturday night when a new team emerged on to Croke Park, one perhaps every bit as important as those wearing different shades of blue jerseys just minutes earlier.
Some brushed the surface and worked with pitchforks to forensically repair divots that had developed in the course of the evening’s play, others pushed mowers to top the grass, work that continued until 10pm and resumed at first light the following day ahead of the second semi-final between Mayo and Tipperary. When that ended, the same process began all over again, only this time with giant grow lights, complete with 600-watt sodium bulbs, being rolled out to help accelerate grass growth in the more shaded half of the field at the Davin End.