JOY AND UNCERTAINTY IN A PANDEMIC
The future’s unclear but it’s good to be back...
NOT for the first time in this upside down summer, the photographers of Sportsfile and Inpho fanned out across the country to capture the new abnormal of the Gaelic games season. To portray the return of official competitive club action in a selection of surreal stills.
And so Thomas Davis physio Carl O’Toole was snapped giving a rub down to a player on the physio bench that was set up in the pitchside parking area at the Bray Emmets club, as a piebald pony looked straight to camera from behind a fence a metre away. The shot of various other players changing out of the boots of their cars was like a throwback to another time.
In Athy, the home club’s jerseys for the Kildare senior football league match against Sarsfields were laid out on the grass from one to 15 for each player to pick up individually, rather than congregate as normal in the dressing-rooms, which are off limits due to Covid-19.
At Páirc na nGael in Glencolmcille, Donegal, referee Shane Toolan was snapped at the coin toss greeting Ardara captain John Ross Molloy with an elbow bump. The picture took the place of a thousand words in summing up the return-to-play protocols that are needed for competitive amateur team sport to return in as safe a fashion as possible. That’s why GAA director general Tom Ryan was setting an example, pictured wearing a facemask as he attended his club Faughs’ senior hurling championship game.
At St Michael’s GAA ground in Magheralin, Down, a bit of history was captured as the home side took on the newly established East Belfast club who played a first competitive game in Division 4B of the Down adult football league.
The latter’s profile page which states ‘players of all backgrounds welcome’ is its own statement about what the club is trying to achieve.
Amidst all the countrywide actions, another couple of off-Broadway highlights generated a big reaction. There was the darling of Waterford, John Mullane back in a pair of boots and in the club colours of De La Salle at 39 years old, ready to put a literal twist on The 2 Johnnies’ classic ‘Junior B All Star’.
‘Imagine rocking down to fill a junior B team, still carrying a covid belly and this lad trots into the corner, the eyebrows plastered in Vaseline, all set to score 2-37 off ya’ – Rory’s Stories captured the dark thoughts of any corner-back who had summered well.
One other junior cameo – this time a video clip from a supporter – threatened to steal the weekend show. It featured a snippet from a Junior G game when St Jude’s made their own little bit of history by fielding a fourth team in the Dublin hurling championship that goes down the alphabet to accommodate all sizes and shapes of talent. At the last check, it was viewed nearly 50,000 times. After a ruck developed around a loose ball, in came the St Jude’s No 15 like a human bowling ball, players falling away like skittles. All that was missing was ‘Strike!’ to flash up on any accompanying electronic scoreboard as one barrelling shoulder was followed by another. By the end, four bodies had hit the ground, two belonging to the opposition. Gary Brennan, who posted the clip, fleshed out the detail on corner-forward Paul Mangan after it had started to do the rounds on the internet. ‘This hero is the proprietor of one of the best pubs in Dublin, Devitts on Camden Street, I guarantee he treats his customers better than either of these 2 lads, call in and support when in the area.’
FOR ALL the strange sights and sounds, the 200-person limit at grounds and the hand sanitisers and Covid-19 warnings all around, there was a real sense of release on the ground to be back in action. For however long it lasts. What it’s like to play in a pandemic? Strange, certainly.
This reporter togged out, no more than John Mullane, chasing the Junior B dream.
Or at least the dream of lasting more than 20 minutes without pulling a hamstring, going over on a dodgy ankle or making a holy show.
A Division 4B hurling league fixture for Ratoath starts with a simple click. The manager has sent the WhatsApp reminder to all players to complete the GAA’s extensive Covid-19 Health Questionnaire which then simply involves a ‘reconfirm’ option for every future session. Which takes about 10 seconds all in, to confirm that your personal health details haven’t changed.
As sports law expert and professor Jack Anderson pointed out in these pages recently, the GAA’s ‘Return to Play’ protocols on the whole have been ‘very detailed, very prescriptive and very good,’ and stand up to professional sport and comparisons ‘to anything they’ve had in Australia’.
And everyone on the field on Sunday seemed happy to be back playing. There was no issue with coming half-togged or sticking on a jersey on the side of the field with the dressing rooms off limits. And everyone seemed to adapt easily to seeing the opposition enter the pitch from a gate on the far side of the field and set up base there for the duration of the game.
If water breaks midway through each half were designed for any player, it’s for the Junior B or G.
At no point before the game did the question of not togging out come up.
Playing a contact team sport in a pandemic invariably involves a level of risk but anyone involved seemed on board with the changes in matchday set-up which are designed so that the games can be played while minimising the risk.
Afterwards, the over-riding sense among everyone was one of uncertainty over how it will all play out. The reports of various GAA clubs around the country having to shut down or temporarily pause activity because of a player or club member testing positive for Covid-19 are rising. If the R rate in the community continues to rise, then Gaelic games as a community hub is clearly going to be impacted. It wouldn’t take much for the season to unravel, as quickly as it restarted. For club, never mind county. But right now, last weekend felt like a new type of beginning rather than a new type of ending.