Wexford chief makes fair point
IT’S reassuring in its own way. Even now the club versus county debate rumbles on and probably where you stood on the issue before lock-down is exactly the same as where you find yourself now. Nothing wrong with that either by the way, we’re entitled to think what we think, have our preferences and likes and dislikes. Still though it’s been interesting to observe how people are reacting to the loss of at least three months of action, including the all-important club month of April. For some people it means that we ought to forget about the All Ireland championships and instead prioritise club championships and club players once life returns to normal. For others it means almost the opposite. Even if we can see where both sides are coming from, we must admit we come down on the side of the inter-county scene. As former Kerry chairman Seán Walsh put so eloquently last week, when this is over people are going to need something to lift them and what better way to lift people than with a festival of football on TV and in the flesh? There are other considerations too. The main one of which is cold hard cash. The GAA is a wealthy organisation, but even it would struggle to cope without any gate receipts this year or without any money from their broadcast partners, Sky and RTÉ, and let’s be clear here that would effect clubs as much as anybody. Clubs need the money they get through grants and all the rest of it.
Of course, the big issue hanging over all of this is that we just don’t know when life will begin to return to normal or even what the new normal might entail. It might be the case that even as restrictions are eased mass gatherings will still be curtailed for a reasonably substantial period of time and it’s here that we might come to some sort of a compromise. Comments by the Wexford GAA chairman Derek Kent got us thinking and to be fair he speaks a fair bit of sense.
He seems to be suggesting that instead of choosing one over the other or going first with the inter-county season, we flip it around and his reasoning is very solid we have to say. “There are less crowds, more players impacted and the club is at the heart of the GAA after all,” he told the Irish Independent.
Who knows what will happen and what the advice might be in a month or two’s time, but starting off with low density crowds before building up to the more traditional mass gatherings might be no bad idea. Whatever happens we’re going to have to be innovative.