Words of caution
I can foresee problems down road
WHEN MAKING major decisions, always do so with a clear vision of where your actions will take you in a couple of years.
No more than anyone, I have a dear wish to see our young people back and playing in our fields very shortly and, judging by the latest roadmap, the decision-makers in the G.A.A. are confident of this happening.
Many pundits and personalities are forceful in their view that an inter-county championship is vital, but for me the mobilisation of the machine should be based on club despite the added complexity of numbers involved compared to the national competitions.
Solutions will come later, but the outline of events worries me as to the problems and repercussions that may put the 2021 season into an even more stressful fixtures situation than already exists.
My worries are in no way to undermine the excellent work in putting a plan together to address the sporting issues of this, a must unusual time.
It also must be pointed out that, due to the uncertainties that we are facing, there is no perfect solution and at best all that we can offer are suggestions that may need to be amended as we progress.
We marvel (quite rightly) at the level of volunteerism in sport, but I feel we must be careful in our expectation over the next few months.
The decision to open walking tracks in clubs is welcomed, but restricting it to four hours supervised by members could be a serious burden to our amateur people. The four-hour guideline will lead to more activity at designated times also.
Moving forward, Covid supervisors, temperature checking, and ensuring correct numbers attend training are also going to be major challenges as we attempt to move back to a semi-normal.
Getting back to competition, because of the many challenges I feel inter-county focus should be more directed to 2021. The club window is between July 31 and October 11, with an eleven-day lead-in with full contact training beforehand.
Firstly, for dual clubs this will be very difficult, with player breakdown being a major issue for those who will play in some cases every week.
The American NFL offer a comparison here, when going back early in 2011 saw a significant surge in injuries, and they were professional.
Whether we like it or not, there will be a collision course between inter-county managers who can resume training on September 14 for championship, and the club boss, with the overburdened player caught in the middle.
Clarification is needed also on the training position on the elite player whose club finishes their season early. Finally, a second wave of Covid could derail the best-laid plans.
It might seem dramatic, but I would give the club scene a bigger window, and my suggestion would be to run all competitions from Minor up in tournament form based on a championship format.
In Senior as an example, four groups of three with last year’s semi- and quarter-finalists seeded. I would include quarter-finals and eliminate the threat of relegation.
My reasons for this would be to afford players the opportunity of being able to decide whether to participate or not, with their very personal decision not having too profound of an impact on his or her club.
Because of the future uncertainty (a second spike possibly) it would afford us the luxury of being able to cancel our competition at short notice if necessary.
Most importantly, it would eliminate the rush to complete the competitions, and I would be open to discussing the tournament v. championship status argument.
We would defer until next year inter-county championship competition (and I appreciate this would be hard on our county player and, remember, it’s only a suggestion), and use November to either complete this year’s National League competitions or play the first three games of next year’s league.
This would in turn leave us with a much clearer first quarter of next year to facilitate Fitzgibbon etc., and lead to a much less condensed calendar.
It would take huge pressure off fixtures for a 2021 which is now a little over six months away. Let us not forget that there is a suggestion of our All-Ireland semis and finals spilling into next year.
I appreciate the serious financial implications of my proposal, and the possibility and hope that things may improve further regarding the virus as the year progresses.
My next and possibly most important point is that we should move straight away to restoring the Minor grade to Under-18 for reasons that I have stated in previous articles, as this would be perfect timing to correct a decision that we should not have made.
Overall, if the environment is safe, my plan would be to give games to as many people as possible and yet eliminate pressure to play for players if their circumstances are not suitable.
From the ongoing fixtures dilemma nationally, it would give a better chance to plan for next year. It may not be the perfect solution but is worth considering, and I do take my hat off to all the people in the organisation who are tirelessly trying to work out a solution to the current dilemma, as I feel there is no clear right or wrong way at the moment.
Have a good week, stay safe, and hopefully I’ll see you at pitch side some time soon.