Stephen’s still top of pile: Rory
THE GAA says all county managers will have to make do with a short run-in ahead of the Championship.
Under the GAA’S roadmap published yesterday, county training cannot restart until September 14 and with club competitions running up to October 11 before the Championship commences “no sooner than October 17”, preparation time will be somewhat limited.
Amid that backdrop, county team bosses are likely to seek earlier access to players though while the GAA acknowledges that managers may not like it, they will have to lump it.
“I think it’s very realistic,” said Feargal Mcgill (right), the GAA’S director of games administration, on the September 14 date.
“There is a cake here that has to be divided among a massive amount of participants. The overwhelming body of participants are club players so I think, on any terms, if you are given a full month to prepare a team, that’s plenty.
“We would love to be able to give inter-county team managers more, we would love to be able to give the club more. It is just not possible in the constraints.
“I know we had a couple of team doctors in our group. We didn’t just pluck a date out of the air.
“I think it’s practical. I don’t expect managers to be happy, far from it, but that’s a very different thing to whether it is practical or not.”
Mcgill is one of 14 members of the GAA’S COVID-19 Advisory Group, which also includes president John Horan and director general Tom Ryan.
It was stressed following the publication of the GAA’S 15-page return-to-play roadmap yesterday that player participation will be on an “opt in/opt out” basis, with Horan stressing the importance of respecting the wishes of those who don’t wish to take part given the risks involved.
He said: “We certainly will be putting a message out in a very strong way for people not to be putting pressure on people.
“People view the situation at the moment as serious as it is because they’ve seen the number of people that have died and suffered bad health from it.
“I just don’t think society would put pressure on people if they make that conscious decision.
“We’ll certainly be getting that message out – there’s no pressure to be put on individuals, if they can’t make it for personal reasons or family reasons.”
A comparison that was repeatedly drawn during a remote press conference held yesterday was that attending training should be as safe as going to the shop for players.
Mcgill added: “One of the reasons we’re aligned to the government roadmap is that as the government moves on to every step, society gets greater confidence.
“You’ll have people going down to the shop. Our job as a committee, as a GAA, as clubs, is to ensure that by going to your GAA club, you’re as safe as you are going to the shop, essentially. That’s where we’re trying to get to.
“As the Government moves on to every step, we anticipate greater confidence in society.
“Of course, we don’t want pressure on people, but I think it will naturally follow as more and more confidence goes into society, people will be doing more and more normal things with every step, and GAA is one of those normal things to do.”
Meanwhile, Horan insisted that the Bloody
Sunday centenary commemoration at Croke Park on
November 21 will go ahead – and may even be paired with a major Championship fixture.
The president explained: “There will be a definite ceremony in Croke Park(below) on Bloody Sunday.
“The fixture schedule will be determined by CCCC in the next week or two. If it’s possible to give a game-factor to the occasion in Croke Park on the night, that will be worked in.
“But the circumstances will be somewhat fluid and we will have to plan the competitions.
“Bloody Sunday and the celebrations won’t be scaled back in any way. It will be marked as a very special occasion in the history of the organisation.”
Phase 2 – June 8
Walkways only reopened, GAA pitches and buildings to remain closed.
GAA COVID education module to be developed and officer/player training plan rolled out. Phase 3 – June 29
Pitches to open for small group training
(10 players, two coaches, non-contact). Buildings to remain closed – players arrive and depart while togged out. Health questionnaire must be completed. COVID supervisor for each team. Underage players must be dropped off/ collected.
Phase 4 – July 20
Return to contact training.
Club games from July 31.
Club buildings remain closed.
Further information on spectators should be available by this point.
Phase 5 – August 10
Window for club games runs to October 11. Access to facilities permitted, subject to social distancing, regular cleaning, etc.
County training resumes Sept 14.
Inter-county schedule to start no earlier than Oct 17 (full revised inter-county calendar to be published once GAA proceeds to Phase 3). Note:
MONAGHAN’S Rory
Beggan says Stephen Cluxton is still the standard bearer for goalkeeperss.
Beggan first appeared for Monaghan in 2012 and has won two Ulster titles and was an All Star in 2018 but reaching an All-ireland final has still escaped him and the Farney county.
Cluxton’s success from kickouts began to seep into the Monaghan set up around 2016 according to Beggan.
“I would have watched him [Cluxton] a lot when I was growing up,” Beggan said to The Sideline View podcast. “The first couple of years under Malachy O’rourke, the first few years I was in the squad, it wasn’t really expected of us to pick out those sort of kickouts. It started to change around 2015 and 16.
“I think every county team and every club team in the county is basing themselves on Dublin.
“Not everyone has a keeper like Stephen Cluxton though, so it does take a bit of work.
“For us, from 2016 on up it has been a huge thing for us, to get the kickouts going and get strategies in place to win our kickouts and try and get up on 100 per cent.”
Beggan is a former GAA coach with Monaghan Coaching and Games added: “I’d say it to coaches that you need to base your goalkeepers in your training as much as you can, get them used to the players around them.
“If it’s a shooting drill you are not going to get better if you don’t work on it, so why not work on kickouts, something that happens 25 or 30 times in a game.
“Definitely, it’s something that has changed a lot on Monaghan football.”