Counties are facing away-day financial headaches
WITH the GAA’S fixtures programme set to be released later this week, counties will face drastically increased bills as they aim to work around the coronavirus pandemic.
The first two weekends of county action, beginning on October 17, will be given towards starting the hurling Championship, but also settling the outstanding permutations for promotion and relegation in the National Football Leagues.
However, this is where the laws of unintended consequences will kick in.
With games of such magnitude, overnight stays are a necessity. And while things may evolve over the next four months, county squads and their support teams might require a room per person, amounting to over 50 separate hotel bookings.
However, there may be a case that the gate proceeds from these games could be made available to offset the additional cost.
Meetings between all the county board treasurers took place last week, which served as an information gathering exercise for Croke Park.
Costs of away games were outlined. One suggestion is that players will have to travel in their own vehicles in order to get around the financial burden of multiple team buses.
Sean Burns, county treasurer of Fermanagh — one of the teams who will be severely impacted — said: “I know some counties are having fairly frank conversations with their panels but it is a wee bit early yet until we hear from Central Council. We have given feedback about the costs involved.”
Fermanagh will be slated to play Clare away from home on October 17 or 18 and given the importance of the game to Ryan Mcmenamin’s team with their Division Two status in doubt, they will have to embark on a hotel stay.
“You are talking about £8,000 for an away stay. You might not get away with that. And that is only for your hotel and your food,” Burns stated.
By playing the remaining league games, the integrity of the National Leagues will be preserved, although the Tier Two All-ireland competition — the incoming Tailteann Cup — will not be played in 2020.
It is believed that after round six is played, ‘dead rubber’ games will not need to be completed once the remaining promotion and relegation places are determined, though some counties may wish to have the extra game.
There are a number of games, though, that will need some financial attention.
With Monaghan hovering just above the relegation zone, Kerry will be coming to play them in a round six game.
Interestingly, the rest of the games in Division One for round six are all derby duels with Donegal hosting Tyrone, Galway at home to Mayo and Dublin welcoming Meath.
While Mayo currently sit in the relegation places, there is a good chance that they could have to play a seventh league game, away to Tyrone.
In Division Two, the only game really requiring an overnight stay in round six is Fermanagh travelling to Clare.
However, Armagh and Roscommon are joint top of the second tier on seven points each and meet in round six.
Anything other than a win for Kieran Mcgeeney’s men would make their final game absolutely critical to securing top-flight status — that being an away trip to Clare.
In Division Three, Louth will require an overnight stay away to Cork in round six.
Antrim are in a good position to be promoted from Division Four, but they have a tricky away trip to Wicklow in round six. An overnight stay would appear a necessity there and if another game is needed, then Waterford’s visit to Antrim is another huge financial commitment that will have to be accommodated.
Meanwhile, the GAA have been given a very clear reminder about the dangers of returning to play with the case of former Tyrone under-age star Conor Mckenna.
A current Aussie Rules player with Essendon, he became the first person to return a positive test for coronavirus since the league started play.
It prevented their match against Melbourne on Saturday night and led the AFL to move to ban full-contact training in groups of more than nine players and staff last night.
Essendon’s entire playing staff were being tested, with fears that their entire backline could be ruled out as they would have comprised the Eglish man’s ‘training pod’.
The GAA have been reluctant to take a lead in how incidents of this nature will be dealt with if they happen during the return to play.
That exact question was asked during their return to play remote press conference.
GAA president John Horan allowed Dr Kevin Moran of the Covid Response Committee to address it.
“Should
there be
a
cluster within a club, then the appropriate health authority in either jurisdiction will make the correct decision for everybody in that club and give advice with regard to the surrounding areas as well,” said Dr Moran.
“These are areas that will be for public health to decide, not for the GAA.”
Pressed on whether GAA clubs, units and county board can assist in this matter, he answered: “Well, certainly the way the situation is managed at the moment is that once there is a positive test, the public health people give very clear advice to whoever has tested positive and also to all the contacts.
“It would still be the same answer, that this decision would still be made by public health.
“The guiding principle for the GAA, there is one principle really, the health and welfare of all our players and everybody in the Association.
“We will continue to meet as an advisory group but anything that jeopardises the safety of our players, that is not on.”