‘Scrapping of the Super-8s on the cards’
AS everyday life not only in this country but many parts of the world slowly grinds to a halt in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, sports is well down the list of many peoples’ priority at present.
The welfare of loved ones is naturally tops, but many are also facing into an uncertain future, with challenging times in the weeks and months ahead for business and the economy.
All sectors of sport has faced shutdown, and with the foreseeable future uncertain a question mark hangs over worldwide attractions like the 2020 Olympic Games, the European soccer championships, the Aintree Grand National and Wimbledon as well as the concluding stages of the English Premier League.
Closer to home is the GAA calendar, and what and when is likely to happen next nobody knows.
Last Thursday the GAA called a halt to all activities in the association until March 31st, though few expect a resumption at the end of that timeframe.
Where does that leave the inter-county season, the concluding stages of the football and hurling leagues, not to mention the championship which is set to get under way in May?
From a Louth perspective, they have two remaining NFL fixtures away to Cork and home to Down, while their opening Leinster Championship fixture is scheduled for May 10th against Longford. Meath have two NFL fixtures away to Dublin and Monaghan, while their opening Leinster Championship fixture is scheduled to be a quarter-final meeting with either Wexford or Wicklow on the weekend of May 23rd/24th.
But could there be a situation that there will be no provincial championship or All-Ireland series for the first time in living memory?
Newtown Blues clubman and Meath senior football coach Colm Nally feels the next two weeks are crucial in determining what takes place and what won’t happen.
‘If they can get this under control by the end of the month and the number of confirmed cases dip off or plateau you could see a resumption of matches,’ Nally said.
‘However if that doesn’t happen they will probably decide to scrap the concluding stages of the league and go straight into the championship after the month of April, which has been designated for club football.
‘I can see a championship without any Super-8s this year. The GAA might decide to revert to what they had a couple of years back, a simple knockout at provincial level and the back door, all of which will be ran off very quickly.’
Nally is not too sure of Meath’s prospects of avoiding relegation from Division 1 of the NFL in the event of it been scrapped, though with no county having yet secured promotion from Division 2 it gives the Royals a glimmer of hope.
His native Louth are all but doomed also, so they too could theoretically benefit if the league is scrapped.
An alternative for the GAA would be to finish the leagues in the autumn, according to Nally, though that would surely clash with the concluding stages of county championships.
Maintaining players’ fitness levels when all activities have ceased is a headache for any coach and it is no different for Nally, even if contingency plans are continually being put in place.
‘The situation is changing from day to day, but when the initial shutdown came we fully adhered to it and banned all collective training. Our last training session was last Wednesday and everything shut down the next day.
‘We sent out running programmes and gym programmes to players, but the gyms were then closed down. We also contacted players with videos of skill sets, but I don’t know whether we can continue with that either as pitches are now closed.
‘Players are encouraged to do everything possible and they can still get out and do some running on their own to help maintain their level of fitness. Everything happened so quickly that we didn’t have time to be better prepared for this.
‘Lads are not silly, however, and they will find ways of staying in trim, especially those who are not working. They won’t be where they were when they come back - they will have lost some level of fitness - but every other county will be the same.’
Nally feels that the association made the correct call.
‘It was the correct thing to do. Everyone in their community has people who are vulnerable and I thought the GAA were wrongly criticised in some circles. They couldn’t have acted until the Government and HSE acted. If they did they would have caused even more panic.’