Repairing damage is GAA’s biggest battle
IF A tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, does it still make a sound?
If Mayo lifted the Sam Maguire Cup in an empty Croke Park, will they have actually won it at all?
Will the 2020 GAA championships be played out to a conclusion?
So many questions and the answers are blowin’ in the most unpredictable of winds.
First things first, while they play an important and vital part in the lives of many, this notion that the Gaelic football and hurling championships are needed for the greater good of the nation are fanciful to say the least.
While many, like you and I, adore the clash of the ash and the sound and sight of a boot on leather, there’s numerous others who couldn’t give a rat’s arse if any of the pretenders to the throne can stop Dublin doing six-in-a-row or if Davy Fitzgerald can navigate those tricky last few branches to lead Wexford back to the top of the hurling tree.
There’s plenty who only care for other sports and dismiss our ancient games as some sort of tribal tomfoolery, while there’s others with absolutely no interest in sport at all, in any shape or form.
It is true that Gaelic games would do wonders to help the mental wellbeing of fans of all ages during a long and harsh winter of discontent, particularly lifelong supporters of a more mature vintage, who need a welcome distraction from their very real and tangible fears.
However, we also have to accept that knowing that GAA players are allowed to journey across the country for games at the weekend, before heading to their place of work on Monday morning, while others are confined to a small area within a few miles of their homes, will cause enormous bitterness and distress for others.
We always need to be mindful and respectful of alternative views, within reason, and accept that some of the more vulnerable among us will look on amateur sports being allowed to continue as a painful kick in the teeth after all their efforts to remain safe.
Similar to when shots were fired at the Cheltenham Festival back in March, the GAA has now become public enemy number one in the eyes of many as positive Covid-19 cases rise rapidly throughout the country.
Of course, there are numerous factors that have resulted in outbreaks, but there’s no denying that post-final sessions in places like Galway, Wexford and Cavan, among others, have contributed significantly to rocketing numbers in those counties and to use sporting parlance, the GAA have definitely lost the dressing-room.
Although it’s clearly not the
fault of the Association itself, it’s all about optics and, whether you agree with them or not, there’s a large cohort who feel let down by the GAA and will continue to cry foul until a halt is called to proceedings.
The current finger-pointing is a crying shame, because there’s no denying that the GAA have done fantastic work throughout this pandemic, from clubs helping the elderly and vulnerable in their communities during the lockdown to ensuring that, in the main, everything ran smoothly, and safely, in the environments they could control during training and matches, with outbreaks not being linked to Gaelic games activities.
However, they have been let down by things that were out of their direct control, and those particular gaping wounds may take a long time to heal.
While the disregard for public health shown by some members is the most fractious and pressing issue surrounding the continuation of Gaelic games, it’s not the only one.
Of course, it’s a necessary evil,
but it’s difficult to fully buy into behind-closed-doors matches, where a faint ripple of applause greets a fantastic score, with the odd roar of encouragement or berating expletive drifting across the eerie setting.
Also, with the prevalence of Covid outbreaks it’s hard to imagine how we could get through the season without teams being adversely affected.
We’ve already seen Leitrim failing to fulfil a league fixture, so it stands to reason there may be tough decisions for other counties in the weeks ahead.
Do we really want to see a county have their championship hopes scuppered due to being unable to field a team, or having to piece together an understrength side?
This year’s roll of honour could be accompanied by a rather large asterisk in bold type, although whether that would bother supporters or not is another matter.
That leads us back to postmatch celebrations. After the bad press of recent weeks, inter-county players will surely act in exemplary fashion, but keeping a lid on the
behaviour of supporters after a provincial or All-Ireland win could be an altogether tougher task.
Fans sitting within their family bubble bedecked in their county colours, quietly applauding the television after their team bridges a long gap to win silverware, is not the image that most would expect.
Whether we like it or not, supporters will gather, to either watch the match, or afterwards to celebrate or drown their sorrows, and good luck to the authorities in trying to police that.
Having Gaelic games to look forward to would certainly shorten and brighten up a dark winter, but if the plug has to be pulled on championships, for whatever reason, we’ll just have to take it on the chin, like we have for so many other matters throughout this godforsaken year.
There will be no perfect ending to what’s been a suffocating 2020 but, whether champions can be crowned or otherwise, mending its tarnished reputation is the biggest and most important battle for the beleaguered GAA in these troubled times.