County Club championships will go first chairman confirms

THE re-commencement of GAA activity in Kerry from Friday, July 31 is likely to begin with the playing-off of the county senior, intermediate, junior premier, and junior club championships.

The CCCC of Kerry County Committee held an online meeting last night, and speaking to The

Kerryman earlier in the day, Chairman Tim Murphy confirmed that a fixture plan and schedule could even be with the clubs before the end of the week.

As part of the GAA’s phased return-to-play protocols, club teams can resume non-contact, socially distant training from Monday, June 29 before moving into the next phase on Monday, July 20, where full contact will be permitted. Competitive matches can be played from the end of that month.

“Yeah, clubs will be notified of the proposals from the CCCC meeting, based on the dates that we have been given by the GAA.

We would hope to have a fixtures plan with the clubs by the end of the week or, certainly, by the early part of next week,” he said.

“I think that the plan, in a broad sense, is that the Club Championships will be the first to resume in the same format that we are used to. That is the groups of four, where everybody will have three games.

“The way it was all along was that one team would qualify out of every group. Pre-Covid, we did look at maybe increasing that to two teams out of every group. We will have to see if that could be facilitated.

“The one thing to know is that there won’t be a provincial or All-Ireland series this year. They are gone, and that could have an impact on the competitions. I don’t know. Taking part at provincial and All-Ireland level was always a huge incentive for our clubs.”

Following the conclusion of the club championships, it will be straight into the blue riband of the domestic Kerry GAA calendar, the county championships in both football and hurling.

“Yeah, the idea after that is for the county championships to then take over. They will be played on a knock-out basis. We must include the hurling county championship in that too, and that’s where the challenge will be. We are going to try and get as many competitions played off as is possible in the time that we have,” added Mr Murphy.

“It will be challenging for dual players, no doubt about that. But the CCCC will sit down and discuss things with clubs. There will be pinch points and difficulties that will arise along the way. But I think that we will be able to come up with a reasonable schedule for everyone. The last part then will be the District Board championships. They are quite important, and we will try and incorporate them into our so-called Master Fixtures Calendar to play off those competitions too.”

Is there a possibility that some County League games could even be played later in the year, without county players if that is necessary?

“Potentially yes. Every decision that we make will be in consultation with the clubs. Some clubs have been onto us already, asking about playing the County Leagues, with even a reduced format, and maybe playing games in November, December and into January.

“If the dates are available for that, and there is a willingness from the clubs, then we will certainly look at all that too.”

In an overall context, the Brosna man admitted that he was ‘elated’ when the GAA roadmap was published by Croke Park last Friday.

“Elated is the best word to use, especially on the basis of everything that has happened over the past ten or eleven weeks. At points in time along the way, it felt that there would be no games, club or county, being played for the rest of the year.

“I’m so thrilled that the GAA have produced such a compre

hensive roadmap, a lot of credit is due to them and to the medical committee that they put in place. They deserve praise for being cautious at the start, putting public health as the number one priority, evolving as the state evolved, before culminating in the publication of the roadmap on Friday.”

What about John Horan’s comments from a few weeks ago when he stated that, while social distancing was present, there would be no games?

“The Uachtaran’s comments were made at a point in time, in my view, where the level of information was not as advanced as it is now. Over the course of two to three weeks, there has been more informed decision-making.

“The medical committee put in place by the GAA were involved in quite a lot of collaboration with the public health officials. The virus was obviously suppressed and, from that, a collective decision was made that the risk was reduced. So sport will resume while social distancing is still there, but that whole area is also likely to evolve even more in the next few weeks.”

What of the supporters? The GAA roadmap mentions ‘limitations placed on spectators’ when club games resume. What does that mean?

“My understanding, right now, is that no crowds will be going to matches. Having said that, we had our chairpersons’ meeting with Croke Park earlier today, and a question was asked in relation to that. Essentially, over the next two or three weeks, the whole area of supporters going to games will be monitored. In consultation with the medical committee and the Government, a decision will be made. There is no definitive answer at the moment.

“But I would be hopeful that we would be able to find a solution. In what form, though, I’m not so sure. I would be reasonably confident that we will get some spectators present, especially at club games, as they can be controlled relatively easily.

“A lot of that will come down to the clubs, having a responsible person in each club as the Covid-19 supervisor. To be honest, there’s quite a bit of work to do over the next three weeks before clubs open their gates at the end of the month and we get back to, initially, some non-contact training.”

The County Committee chairman confirmed that plans to stream club matches are well along in the pipeline, with people made aware of what games might be available to view sometime in the next couple of weeks.

The Cul Camps are also due to commence in Kerry on July 20, although some clubs have already informed the board that they will not be hosting camps in 2020.

“I am 100 per cent confident that there will be Cul Camps in Kerry. But I’m not sure of the format at this stage. It is likely that they will be in less places than previous years, possibly in more regional centres,” said Mr Murphy.