TRAPPED IN TIME
League tie presents a problem for Ulster foes
DONEGAL and Tyrone will be afforded a window of at least two weeks between their League and Championship clashes when the inter-county season resumes in October.
The GAA is expected to confirm next week that the inter-county football season will resume with the penultimate round of the Allianz League, which will see Donegal host Tyrone in Ballybofey on the weekend of October 17.
It is a pairing that will discomfit both Donegal manager Declan Bonner and his Tyrone counterpart Mickey Harte, as they are also set to meet in the opening round of what will likely be a knockout Championship.
A GPA-hosted meeting involving county captains this week revealed that players want the Championship to finish in the calendar year and are opposed to any proposed wraparound of the inter-county season to the end of February.
The increasing likelihood that the GAA will opt for a knockout format only magnifies the importance of the clash of the Ulster giants. Even with the qualifier safety net in play, the game was already the headline game of the Championship.
Bonner and Harte had not factored in meeting each other so close to what will be a seasondefining Championship fixture, but complicating matters further is that neither team can afford to lose their League clash.
As it stands, both counties are still vulnerable to being relegated from the Allianz League’s top tier, even though Tyrone are currently in third place on six points, with Donegal having secured one point less.
The result of the DonegalTyrone game will not matter should Galway defeat Mayo in their rescheduled round six clash — a result that would all but end the latter’s 24-year residence in the top tier barring a freak sequence of results.
Mayo are on three points and are set to face Tyrone in the final round of the League.
Should the Westerners beat Galway and the Red Hands lose to Donegal, they could condemn Harte’s team to the drop.
And should Mayo get a result against Galway and Donegal lose to Tyrone, Bonner’s team would probably have to beat Kerry in Tralee to be assured of their top-tier status.
It leaves Bonner and Harte with the dilemma of how much of their hand they’re willing to show when the shutter on the inter-county game rolls up, even though there could be dire consequences for both if they lose.
However, the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) are likely to afford both teams some breathing space between their League and Championship games.
Croke Park had been toying with the idea of delaying the final round of the League until a gap week in the Championship, only fixing games in which relegation and promotion issues are still at play. However, it is understood the CCCC could change tack.
Alarmed at how some counties, particularly ones with a strong dual pedigree, are struggling to complete their championships inside the existing 11-week window, the GAA could move the start of the Championship to the weekend beginning October 31, to ease the pressure.
That would allow both rounds of the League to be played on consecutive weekends and, allied to Cavan and Monaghan meeting in the preliminary round in the Ulster Championship, it could conceivably mean that the Donegal-Tyrone Championship game could take place three weeks after the teams clash in the League.
While the assumption is that the Championship clash between the counties, which is also fixed for MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey, could be moved to Croke Park, it is understood that Donegal have not given up hope of the game taking place in Ballybofey. It is anticipated that the Government will announce its intention to move from a two-metre social distancing regulation to a one-metre rule next week, but that will still fall well shy of making MacCumhaill Park fit for purpose. A study conducted by the Irish Mirror last weekend revealed that, with the two-metre social distancing regulation in place, MacCumhaill
Park’s seating capacity would be less than 300.
At one metre, it would increase to just over 1,500, which would still not come close to being fit for purpose.
However, provincial councils are gambling that the ban on gatherings of more than 5,000 people, which is in place until September, could be reviewed as early as next month when the final phase of lockdown restrictions are lifted.
Their hope is that continuing evidence of suppression of the pandemic in the community, allied to increased public health safety measures, such as the wearing of face masks, could lead to the suspension of social-distancing regulations in outdoor settings.
For now that remains a shot in the dark, but one they wouldn’t have imagined a month ago.
‘As it stands both counties are still at risk of relegation’