They didn’t teach me how to handle this one in college

WELL, THIS is going to be interesting: putting a sports supplement together when there’s unlikely to be any action for the foreseeable future. They didn’t teach me how to do that when I was in journalism college 30 years ago! It wasn’t too difficult this week if I’m honest though, for a variety of reasons.

First of all, we were able to cover some events in the days directly preceding the shutdown. I was in Ferrycarrig Park on Tuesday for the Wexford F.C. clash with Bray Wanderers in the EA Sports Cup, while Brendan Furlong ventured up to Oulart for their EEW All-County Hurling League opener against Cloughbawn 24 hours later.

And while I couldn’t believe that Cheltenham went ahead, by the same token it was a godsend in terms of providing copy as the coverage to the right of this column will confirm.

In addition, some items that weren’t time sensitive were deliberately held over last week, in anticipation of the situation we are now trying to deal with.

This is quite a common practice in our profession, whereby a report may be kept in reserve if it isn’t going to be overtaken by another match or event for the team or sport in question before the next edition is published.

It’s usually governed by a lack of space rather than an unprecedented crisis, but the general principle remains the same.

The three camogie matches on page two of this supplement are a case in point, along with the coverage of two big social occasions: the Wexford District G.A.A. and Wexford Athletics awards.

Golf has also survived, albeit without the comforts of the 19th hole at this stage, while we will be bringing you full coverage of today’s behind-closed-doors race meeting in Bettyville next week.

However, it’s going to be a challenge filling these pages in the weeks and months to come; but if you’re reading this and thinking to yourself that there’s people with a lot more to contend with right now, you would be one hundred per cent correct.

A life entirely without sport is something that many of us would find difficult to envisage, but the only thing that matters at the moment is ensuring we all get through this crisis with our health intact.

We had a taste of it for a mercifully short period owing to the foot and mouth outbreak in 2001, but this is on an entirely larger scale.

I don’t believe anyone is naive enough at this stage to think that everything will return to normal when we wake up on March 30, and the playing fields will come alive again over the first weekend of April. Some of us will still get our sporting fix, but in a different way. The nature of my job means that I’m rarely at home on any given Sunday, covering games in the afternoon and then going to the office immediately afterwards owing to our tight deadlines.

That left me with a mere 2% space to spare on my Sky box, because I record every live G.A.A. match and ‘Sunday Game’ programme but rarely get a chance to watch them.

As a result, I’ve set myself a target: to watch at least one game every day now for as long as is necessary. Some people have no interest in looking at a contest of any description when they already know the outcome, but luckily I’m different.

I started on Friday by watching last year’s Allianz Football League final between Mayo and Kerry; Saturday’s match was a Dublin Senior championship clash of Ballymun Kickhams and St. Brigid’s from 2018; and late Sunday night saw me settling down to look at the second part of that Parnell Park double-header, featuring Kilmacud Crokes and Ballyboden St. Enda’s.

I now have 4% rather than the 2% I started with, and I’ve also been able to maintain my sanity in the process by watching some football (yes, I know that may be some folks’ idea of torture, but I’ll get around to the hurling too!).

Sunday was also the first time since my last holidays that I was able to sit down and read my newspaper of choice from cover to cover, supplements and all. In a normal week, it would be an achievement to manage that feat by the following Friday night.

Of course, it means absolutely nothing in the overall scheme of things, but in the current climate we need to cherish the very small, insignificant accomplishments we would otherwise take for granted.