Clubs promised lead time
Two to three weeks to plan once games get go-ahead
A LEAD time of two to three weeks will be allowed before any G.A.A. club championship games are fixed after the Covid-19 related restrictions are eased.
That was the most comforting note to emerge from a County Board statement issued on Wednesday to confirm that all games previously scheduled for March and April are now postponed.
While the first round of EBS All-County Football League ties had taken place, only one corresponding hurling match was fitted in, with that meeting of Oulart-The Ballagh and Cloughbawn held on the night before the suspension of all G.A.A. activities until March 29 was announced.
And with further restrictions highly likely, Wexford County Board took the correct action in the middle of last week by removing all doubt from the minds of their players and officials.
The signatures of Derek Kent (Chairman) and Gearóid Devitt (Secretary) appeared on the statement, confirming the postponement of all games listed for March and April.
‘No new dates have been pencilled in as there is no clear timeline as to when sporting action of any type will recommence due to the ongoing battle to curtail the coronavirus,’ it noted.
The Board will now engage with the Leinster Council and the national Competitions Control Committee with a view to re-structuring the domestic games programme.
‘This may include the redesign of the current format,’ the statement continued.
‘If so, we will engage with the clubs prior to any decision being made.’
And it is envisaged that, regardless of when these restrictions are lifted, the local C.C.C. will allow a lead time of two to three weeks before club championship activity begins.
Time will not be on Wexford’s side regardless of when the crisis eases, because the two groups of six format, coupled with the strong prevalance of dual players and clubs, means that it would take 16 weeks to complete an entire championship programme as it currently stands from start to finish.
Five weeks apiece would be required to get through the group stages, and then another three each in order to move through quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals across both codes.
A return to a once-off knockout championship for the first time since 2000 cannot be ruled out.
Another possibility would be to re-draw the teams into four groups of three rather than two groups of six, but it all depends on the amount of time available once the action resumes.
The entire inter-county scene has to be factored in also, and that too could face radical alterations. Certainly, it’s difficult to see how the round robin hurling games in Leinster and Munster could be accommodated at the present time.
However, regardless of how it all plays out, there is universal agreement that the games programme at both local and national levels is extremely low on the list of everyone’s priorities.
With sporting activity decimated for the most part, the only events to survive in Co. Wexford last week were the St. Patrick’s Day race meeting in Bettyville, and the Monday and Thursday night greyhounds programme in Enniscorthy, with those events held behind closed doors.
The golf clubs remain open to members, with players ordered to strictly adhere to guidelines issued by the Golfing Union of Ireland.