There is finally light at the end of the tunnel

Earlier non-contact training up to groups of 15 on cards for June 29 Inter-county season to begin on October 17, with possible January end Remaining football league games still have a chance of being played

The GAA looks set to move even quicker than scheduled towards a return to play as conditions throughout the country in the battle to suppress Covid-19 appear more favourable.

Just hours after the Government gave the green light for elite athletes to begin training together in groups up to a maximum of 15 from next Monday, the GAA’s own roadmap signalled the expected return to non-contact training for clubs on June 29 with competitive games cleared for a Friday, July 31 start.

But while the June 29 start date looks set to hold as the GAA rolls out Covid19 education programmes for its players, underage parents, club officers and supervisors, the Irish Independent understands the picture could quickly change after that with up to 15 being allowed to train together from that date instead of the 10 specified yesterday.

The Government acceleration could well prompt the Croke Park advisory group to look at bringing contact training forward by three weeks to phase three or slightly after June 29. This would then allow club competitions to begin a week earlier than scheduled, Friday, July 24 instead of July 31.

GAA president John Horan said the new Government guidelines would be examined.

“We are going to be flexible and the movement with the Government this afternoon was quite positive. We are quite happy to row along with that positivity, but again the training is key before we open the facilities,” he said.

The GAA’s Central Competitions Controls Committee (CCCC) will unveil an inter-county competition format over the next two weeks after setting Saturday, October 17 as the earliest start date.

But that doesn’t mean that championship games will take place straight away as the remaining games in the football leagues still have a fighting chance of being played, possibly over the last two weekends in October before provincial championships commence.

Counties will have an initial 11-week window to get competitions up and running but some are already planning to finish after their inter-county interest is over.

Horan again projected that a championship, even with an October start for inter-county games, could finish in

February 2021 but that is more likely in January 2021. Inter-county teams can’t officially restart training until September 14 but some managers are expressing annoyance over that and are actively planning to return at non-GAA venues in the coming weeks.

GAA director-general Tom Ryan again suggested there is “no appetite” for behind-closed-doors games at a media briefing yesterday. Croke Park will host many of the championship games in more than just Leinster because of its capacity, 20,500 under current social distancing provisions.

Opinion around the risks attached to contact sport appears to have shifted. One of the advisory group medical representatives, Donegal team doctor Kevin Moran, accepted that if a two-metre social distancing provision remained he didn’t believe it would be possible to have contact training.

“However, the trends over the last few weeks are that the R (reproduction) value was decreased, our intensive care and hospitals are almost empty of Covid patients and the mortality rate has decreased dramatically. All the indications are that over the next few weeks is that the situation will settle,” he said.

Moran fees that training outdoors leads to “minimal risk” and that by following the outlined protocols a GAA pitch will be “one of the safest places for a player to be.” The GAA’s director

BRENDAN MORAN/SPORTSFILE The sun sets over Croke Park – however, yesterday’s announcement has raised hopes of a return to action in GAA fields across the country of games Feargal McGill said they were guided by the Government on that. “The Government document permitted contact sport in phase four, so if the Government wish to move onto contact sport, then so are we. That’s it. We just follow the Government rules. “They might decide that social distancing remains in place, but for the good of the country, the mental health of people, they are treating sport differently. That’s what’s implied in the Government roadmap. “One of the reasons we are aligned with the Government roadmap is that as the Government moves onto every step, society gets greater confidence. So you are going to have people going down to the shop and our job as a committee, as the GAA, as clubs, is to ensure that by going to the GAA club you are safer than going to the shop essentially or as safe. That is what we are trying to get to and that is why we have this document in place. We are minimising risk.”