The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Compromise will be key as we look to redeem a sow’s ear of a year
LAST night (Tuesday) the Kerry GAA executive was scheduled to meet to sign off on their road map and fixtures plan that will accommodate a return to play for all adult footballers and hurlers in the county, providing games and competitions for all from the start of August to the middle of October. Relative to other ‘normal’ years, the 12-week window being afforded to club activity as the country and the GAA starts to return to normality after, hopefully, the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic has passed us, is incredibly tight, and in many respects the fixtures planners have been tasked with a near impossible job.
To have even produced a fixtures plan that covers the club championships, the county championship, district board championships, and junior cup competitions in both codes has been a commendable piece of work, carried out in such a short period of time. Needless to say, the proof of the fixtures pudding will be in the playing of it, but as it stands there looks to be something for everyone.
Of course, even when things are run off in the absence of any pandemic, it’s rare, if ever, that all of the people are pleased all of the time, and under the proposed fixtures some teams and players will enjoy more games than others, but is that not what knock-out championship football has always been about.
There’s an old Irish phrase that some people covet the pig and the price of him, but in the circumstances we’re lucky to have a pig at all. Two months ago there was the very real prospect of there being no Gaelic games being played for the rest of the year and - at the risk of being shouted down by the non-expert experts - there is still that chance that numbers of positive Covid-19 cases and deaths could begin to surge upwards again and send us all back indoors.
What we have now is a decent looking cake and it’s up to all constituent clubs whether or not they want to eat it as is. As of today (June 17) there are six and a half weeks until the first weekend of action on the August bank holiday weekend. Given that clubs have been back training in some way, shape of form for at least the last week and at least a couple of weeks in some cases - players should be in a reasonably good state of fitness for the first round of the Club Championships.
(It’s at a time like this that all these well-paid managers and coaches and fitness gurus will surely justify their hefty ‘expenses’ by getting their teams into proper shape in what should be a very manageable six-week period, rather than the usual three to four months of pre-season training everyone has become accustomed to.)
Where the potential problem arises is towards the end of the 12-week club period when the inter-county action resumes, and the inevitable tug o’ war between club and county ensues. It does seem somewhat ill-conceived by the GAA authorities to designate a block of time for club competitions that runs right up to and overlaps the inter-county season for a week in mid-October. Kerry have scheduled the Club Championship finals for the weekend of October 17/18, which, as it stands, is the starting weekend for inter-county action. Even if the Kerry footballers aren’t in action that weekend, they certainly will be the following weekend, which leaves both the county players involved in those club finals, and Kerry manager Peter Keane, in somewhat of a fix.
Without even guessing what teams might reach those club finals, there’s a very good chance that anywhere between six and ten Kerry panellists - even starters - could be involved with their clubs that weekend. How happy would the Kerry team management be with that arrangement a week out from a possible Championship knock-out game against Cork down in Pairc Ui Chaoimh?
And that’s not even considering how much time the players will be required to train with Kerry, and how much with their clubs.
Of course, this should never be an ‘us’ and ‘them’ argument, but there has always been that strain down the years between the county team manager wanting his players all the time and the club managers wanting their county players ahead of important championship games. Quite how that circle will be squared in October remains to be seen. The reality is that the club managers are unlikely to see their county men much, if at all, beyond the middle of September save for match days.
What is important in all this is that some sense of collegiality comes through. That there’s an understanding and appreciation that we now have something to play for; that at least now our football fields - if not necessarily the stands and terraces - will be filled with footballers doing what they couldn’t do all summer.
If an All-Ireland Football Championship is to be played on a knock-out basis it could be all over for Kerry in one afternoon, as it will be for half the counties in the competition. Either way, the destination of the Sam Maguire Cup could be decided over five, maybe six, weekends before Christmas.
Maybe people will be allowed in to watch the games, but there certainly won’t be full capacity crowds. Compromises have already been made to try and salvage a Gaelic games season, and more concessions are going to be needed. Some things have to give, and old club versus county divisions are going to have to be a lot more flexible.
Our games are coming back, and for that we should be relieved and grateful and excited.
Kerry GAA and Croke Park and all the other county boards will have done their best to accommodate as many footballers and hurlers as possible across as many competitions and grades as possible. Cut them some slack, even when it might look like this team or that player or the other manager is getting what they would want in an ideal world.
For the foreseeable future - or at least until the end of this truncated, on-the-fly GAA season - a bit of give and take is required. Remember, we can’t have our pig and the price of him, but with a little generosity we might just salvage some sort of silk purse out of what has been a sow’s ear of a year.