BACKCHAT What’s the GAA Championship without its crowd?

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AST Friday evening Taoiseach Leo Varadkar opened the door a little on the possibility of sport in some way, shape or form making a comeback in the next few months.

Phase 2, which will come into, er, play on June 8 states that people can engage in outdoor sporting and fitness activities where there is a “small group team” but this does not include matches.

Phase 3 on June 29 suggests that some “behind closed doors” sporting activities will be permitted.

Phase 5, scheduled to start on August 10, says sports spectatorship that involves mass gatherings will be permitted, but only in accordance with both indoor and outdoor number restrictions.

It goes without saying that everything planned over the next few weeks and months with regard to loosening restrictions is subject to a steady decrease in COVID-19 positive cases and deaths from the virus. Everything in the Government’s plan will be dictated by the numbers.

Nevertheless, there was a palpable sense on Friday night and over the weekend that at least there is a little light at the end of the tunnel: whether or not that tunnel is the one leading out from under the Hogan Stand into an All-Ireland Final crowd of 82,300 is another matter altogether.

Nobody can be certain of much in these most uncertain of times but this much we can say with some certainty: there will be no full capacity attendance in Croke Park this side of Christmas for an All-Ireland football or hurling final, and it’s very unlikely that any GAA stadium in the country will see anymore than a couple of thousand spectators file through the turnstiles on any given Sunday this year.

With COVID-19 still alive and dangerous in society until a vaccine is found, social distancing will be very much a way of life for us all. To countenance how thousands of people could sit cheek to jowl in a stadium for a couple of hours, replete with the roaring and shouting and spit-laden invective flying, while trying to socially distance from each other, well...

So, the fix is simple. Take the capacity of your stadium, divide by a number – say 10 – and allow only that number to go in on the understanding that seating will be adequately spaced out and people on the terrace would do the right thing and stand apart from each other. Great. Let the games begin.

But what of the gladiators down in the middle of the Colosseum? Sure, those up in the fancy seats and the bleachers are just there to be entertained, but does that mean the footballers and hurlers down on the pitch are to be thrown to the lions and put at risk for our entertainment?

Nobody is really saying that’s the case, but there seems to be a tacit acceptance, in some quarters at least, that contact team sport can and should resume while social distancing is still being advised by our public health officials. Imagine the stickiest of sticky corner-backs travelling to an away game in separate cars or spread across three or four coaches in order to keep them apart, only then to have them take to the field and proceed to ‘breath down the necks’ and ‘get inside the shorts’ of their opponents for upwards of 80 minutes. It’s not really on, is it?

There’s talk of testing players before and after games, but is that really feasible when testing kits and resources would be more a priority in nursing homes and hospitals where this virus is certain to live on and – dare we say, thrive – for months and months? What if a player tests positive before a game: is the fixture called off if there’s any uncertainty that he might have come into contact with other team mates? Would players be expected to wear face masks?

Even down to the simple matter of getting drinks out to the players on the field, would every player need to have their own bottle labelled and placed just for their own use?

Drill down into the details – even a small bit – of a return to team sports and the practicalities become a minefield. At best it would be a logistical nightmare, at worst it’s simply unworkable.

Some players – including Kerry’s David Clifford and Stephen O’Brien – have said they’d be okay with playing games in empty stadiums, that a game in those circumstances would be more desirable than no game at all. It’s a given that both men are speaking under the assumption that the health experts would give the all clear for contact sport like Gaelic football to resume, but not for thousands of spectators to pack into a ground to watch. But then the question remains: if a ball is kicked in the Championship but no one is present to hear it, is it a Championship at all?

Would the players really want to play in those circumstances? Playing challenge matches or A versus B training games with only the seagulls to watch is one thing, but Cork footballers or hurlers vying with Kerry or the Cats or whoever with only Hawkeye and a few assembled reporters and the television crews for company, is that really what the players want?

It’s a few years now since the GAA managed to stop the crowds from coming on the pitch at the end of the All-Ireland Finals, and it seems that the players – winners and losers – have been much happier with the new arrangement. But accepting the Sam Maguire or Liam MacCarthy Cups in an empty Hogan Stand, raising it up to an empty Cusack Stand...we’re not so sure about that one.