The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Chairman on Coiste na nÓg’s plan for return to play
Coiste na nÓg Chairman Tommy Cronin discusses the return to play for Kerry’s underage players
THE group of people most affected by the lockdown – as opposed to the pandemic itself – were undoubtedly the children of Ireland.
With schools and crèches closed by order of government and the health authorities, their worlds shrank even more dramatically than for us adults. Until quite recently even play-grounds were shut and, most tellingly of all, children’s sporting out-let was cut off completely.
With all the focus this week on the All Ireland championship and the local club competitions, it’s possible that the return to the playing fields of the under 18s would go a little under the radar, but arguably the looming return of Coiste na nÓg fixtures is the most significant development of the lot.
To paraphrase David Bowie’s Starman, we can now let the children boogie again. Naturally enough a significant amount of work has gone into ensuring that the children can do just that. The man leading the charge here in the Kingdom is the chairman of the Coiste na nÓg, Tommy Cronin.
Over the last number of weeks Cronin and his colleagues on the Coiste na nÓg, in conjunction with their counterparts on the County Board CCC, have put in place a series of fixtures and guidelines to facilitate the return to play in underage grades.
The programme they’ve managed to put in place seems comprehensive and, most importantly of all, coherent. It can’t at all have been an easy thing to devise with all the conflicting priorities and necessities, but through hard-work and dedication they got there in the end.
“We would have had provisional stuff done prior to everything coming to a halt, but we did have to go back and look at it again,” Cronin explains.
“We used what we had done and took geography into account and reduced the group sizes. There was two ways of looking at it, firstly if we went back to the way it was and [what then if] it fell apart after a round or two?
“Then secondly if we ease our way back into it and after the first two or three weeks we can look at the second phase and we might be able to get back to our old divisional structure. The most important thing is to get them back out playing at the moment.
“With what’s gone out to the clubs now we’ll use the results as a guide for phase two, which we’d hope to be a more traditional league structure. We do that every year with Under 12 because Under 12 is a hard group to judge.
“We go to clubs at the start of every year and ask them where they think they’ll be with numbers and things like that. We always have phase one and phase two in Under 12 every year.”
The necessity to avoid travel has led to groups being organised in clusters of nearby clubs. In one Under 12 group, for instance, Renard, St Michaels, St Marys and Valentia make up the participating sides.
“We were restricted this year with travel,” Cronin continues.
“Travel was the main thing really. We had to try and limit the travel. You have to because there’s no buses as we are now. The kids are supposed to travel to the games with their own family. You have to make it feasible as well.”
Looking at the programme of games in Coiste na nÓg and looking at the programme of games at adult level, it does seem like it’s going to be hectic period, which one might imagine would put pressure on referees. Cronin is keen to stress, however, that it’s not necessarily anything out of the ordinary.
“After about week three when the club championships reach the knock-out phase you’re not actually talking about a whole pile of games,” he says.
“In fairness it’s kind of like this when the kids start off anyway every April. The difference would be that the districts would have one of the age groups, normally they’d start with Under 16s and we’d kick off with Under 14s and Under 12s.
“On paper it all looks very busy. The main thing we’re taking into account is the work of the club. They have to register with regards the Covid guidelines. The other thing then is that Under 14 is the one age group where you can be caught.
“You could be playing Under 14 and Under 12 or Under 16s, whereas the Under 12s and the Under 16s don’t have a crossover as such so we delayed the start of the Under 14.”
Cronin confirmed that the Under 14 and Under 16 District County Championships aren’t on the agenda as of now.
“At the moment it doesn’t look like it. What you’ve got to understand again is that it’s difficult enough for clubs with all the guidelines by themselves and then you’ve got players from different clubs to train with a district.”
Underage district board competitions are in a similar boat.
“At the moment yeah,” he continued.
“The only district competition that’s going to be taking place at the moment is the senior championships. Now that might be subject to change as we progress. We’ve got the review in there. It’s just to have the control over all of the games.
“We didn’t want a couple of bodies picking games here and picking games there. We put a programme together and there’s really going to be no calling off games, clubs are either going to buy into it or not. They all are, I know that, but having a couple of different bodies [makes it difficult]. It’s more control.”
This past week or week as kids return to training and as pitches reopen fully will be quite a busy one for clubs and parents as forms will need to be filled and collected and other guidelines followed.
“The general feeling we’re getting back from the clubs is that they’re just dying to get back out on the field,” Cronin says.
“I think they’re more wary of the guidelines and the paperwork rather than getting the kids back. A lot of the work will be done over the next two weeks back the clubs. Once they get the kids back training this week and all these forms will be collected. Then it’s just a situation of acknowledging that the situation hasn’t changed. That’s the gist of it.
“Obviously when you’ve got a child, a minor under 17, it’s the parent or the guardian who signs off on that. There’s a bit of responsibility on the adult players and then the juvenile players’ parents. I think people will be sensible enough. They’re not going to [abuse it].”
The County Coiste na nÓg is to hold a meeting by Zoom next week to iron out any remaining issues clubs may have with the guidelines or with the fixtures programme. The Chairman is encouraging clubs to contact them prior to the meeting with any concerns they may have.
“We have a meeting arranged for next Monday night and that if clubs have any issues with the structures that they come back to us and come back to us this week so we can have answers for the meeting then, because Zoom is a different platform from a regular meeting,” he continued.
“We just want to ensure that if clubs have issues they come back to us and we can address them as soon as possible. I think given that five weeks ago we sat down and we were kind of resigned to the fact that there would be no football played this year and over a matter of weeks it’s changed dramatically. We don’t know where we’re going to be in another three weeks. We could be going the other way or we could be going forward again. It’s important for people to realise that we can’t go back to normal. It’s not normal and it won’t be normal for a while yet, probably until we get a vaccine. We’ll hope to make do as well as we can.”
We just want to ensure that if clubs have issues they come back to us and we can address them as soon as possible
– Tommy Cronin