GAA season not worth the risk, says Treaty boss
Treaty boss Lee prioritises safety over promotion push
LIMERICK football manager Billy Lee has backed the GAA’s decision to suspend the season, saying that the risk to the public made it no longer worthwhile. The Treaty County was one of the big losers when the Allianz Leagues were suspended, as they had been top of Division 4 with two rounds left to play.
And despite GAA president John Horan admitting this week that the competition may not be completed, Lee said he backed the decision, even if it means his team miss out on promotion. ‘One mistake here will cost a life and it is never worth that,’ Lee told Sportsmail. ‘I don’t see any football being played and I don’t see any contact sport being played this year. ‘Based on what we know at this point in time, and where things are at, I just don’t see contact sport being played until we know more about this virus,’ he added. Lee also revealed that several of his players would not be willing to play in the absence of a vaccine. ‘There is a percentage of our lads who would say that they could not take the risk because of their background, be it work or family. If I got all my players back, I would be amazed,’ said Lee.
LOSING is hardly an abstract concept for Billy Lee, but he dismisses the suggestion that Limerick football’s latest set-back is the deepest cut of all.
When the shutters slammed down on the GAA season in early March, Lee and his Limerick team were on top of their world as they sat head of Division 4 of the Allianz League with just two rounds remaining.
True, a perfect start to the season — a seven-game winning streak that also saw them win Munster’s pre-season McGrath Cup — was broken by Antrim in their last game before the lockdown, but with games at home to Wexford and away to Sligo, the pathway to what would have been a season-defining promotion was clearly visible.
That is now very much up in the air, not least after GAA president John Horan’s state of the union address last Sunday when he suggested that the leagues would not be completed.
‘At this stage I would be inclined to say that we will struggle to finish them,’ said Horan, during his appearance on The Sunday
Game on RTÉ. Lee watched and listened, and despite the cost for his team, he could only concur.
‘Based on what we know at this point in time and where things are at, I just don’t see contact sport being played until we know more about this virus.
‘One mistake here will cost a life and it is never worth that,’ admits Lee.
Of course, the fact that the leagues will not be completed in the calendar year will not necessarily mean they will be declared null and void, given the GAA’s stated ambition as recently as last month to finalise all the outstanding promotion and relegation issues.
Linking League status to the make-up of a two-tiered Championship presents an obvious motivation for the GAA to finalise the 2020 leagues.
Given that there is a question over what window, if any, will be available for the GAA in 2021, that may no longer be possible.
If that is the case, Lee insists he will take that blow on the chin.
‘I don’t think that the season has gone to waste from our point of view.
‘We played eight games between the McGrath Cup and the League and the lads enjoyed the experience of winning seven of those games consecutively. That says much about their own belief and development.
‘I know that does not get us anywhere but there were no guarantees anyway that we would have got promoted, because we still had to play Wexford at home and play Sligo on the road.
‘From that perspective we got benefit out of what was played but there was no guarantee that even if we got to play those last two games, we would have got promoted.
‘The way I see it is, if that is what happens, then that is the way it is.
‘We will all go back next January and if we have developed as a squad as to where our League position showed, one would think we would be capable of putting ourselves into the top end of Division 4 to compete again next year,’ said Lee, who in his fourth season as Limerick boss.
If giving up on promotion is the price, it is one that Lee is willing to pay, insisting there is a far bigger issue at play.
‘We are looking to open up the country step by step over the coming weeks and months but the one thing people must understand is that this virus has not gone away.
‘While it will reduce, it will come back again around the fall of the year and winter time. What happens then if we don’t have a vaccine? There are many, many questions to be answered yet for public safety before we are in any position to understand what is possible.
‘The way I look at it is that we have frontline workers in our squad. Whether as doctors or in An Garda Síochána and then we have vulnerable people in our squad, players with asthma and on top of that you have players with family members who are vulnerable.
‘You can’t afford to get this wrong once because if you get it wrong once someone is going to lose their life so it is not worth the risk.
‘Every individual has to look at it from their own perspective and we have to respect people’s opinions and if someone decides it is not for him because of the risk it brings, that is the way it has got to be.
‘I would say that there is a percentage of our lads who would say that they could not take the risk because of their background, be it work or family.
‘I don’t know the detail of that but I would be amazed if I got all my players back.
‘I would say that there would be a good number in every squad, because of the risk factor involved, who would do likewise.
‘I don’t see any football being played and I don’t see any contact sport being played this year.
‘The year is slipping away now and the authorities are not giving us any sign that it is going to stop.
‘While that is in place I just don’t see how you can ask anyone to go out and play games with close physical contact and saliva coming out of mouths.
‘Player safety has to be paramount,’ concluded Lee.
“I don’t expect to get all my players back”
“Get it wrong and someone loses their life”