Time for lesser lights to shine
THE worst that the vast majority of us had feared more or less became reality on Sunday night when GAA President John Horan laid out the harsh facts in terms of there being no contact sport while social distancing was still a requirement.
Given the dangers of Covid-19 to the elderly and those with underlying issues there was never going to be even the slightest hope that you could have contact sport in an amateur organisation given that many of the players and officials would have to return home to elderly parents or children or relatives who could be infected.
I know the fear is that there will be no GAA or amateur soccer or rugby in 2020 but unless a vaccine is found or some other groundbreaking plan is unveiled, I’d be more worried about 2021 to be honest.
Throw in the fact that it was revealed yesterday that a survey within the CPA found that only 57 per cent of club players were willing to return to play before there is a Covid-19 vaccine in place and the fact that people are still dying on a daily basis and the strange sense that we are almost through this becomes even more worrying.
‘Club players are at the centre of the return to play conversation,’ said CPA Chairman Micheál Briody on Tuesday. ‘The survey results indicate that a significant number of club players believe that until games are safe, they do not want to play. It presents a challenge for the future of the GAA but one we feel that as a community of players and members we can face and surmount together.’
‘There has been a phenomenal voluntary effort at club level to assist elderly and vulnerable people in the fight against Covid-19. The GAA as an association has shown real leadership. It is further evidence of the importance of the grass roots GAA to the fabric of Irish society and further highlights the need for the games to be more community centric going forward.’
The CPA survey shows that any relaxation of social distancing is unlikely to make the resumption of Gaelic Games more likely. Only 57 per cent of club players are willing to return to training before there is a Covid-19 vaccine in place. And, among club players there is little appetite for intercounty action with only a third prepared to attend county matches. Over a quarter of players live with a vulnerable person.
The survey was completed by 3,008 respondents
57 per centare prepared to return to action in 2020, 22 per cent are not prepared to return and 21 per cent don’t know at this stage.
61 per cent are prepared to attend club games whilst only 34 per cent are prepared to attend intercounty games.
27 per cent of club players live with a person over 70 years of age or a vulnerable individual
64 per cent would train or play if there was temperature checking in place
‘All sporting bodies are faced with the unenviable task of determining when it is safe for their games to resume in light of the Covid-19 pandemic shut down,’ continued Briody. ‘The GAA as an amateur body, probably has a more difficult task than most because their players all work or study so it is not possible to bubble wrap them between games. Those players will return to families, workplaces, schools or colleges and the task of contact tracing becomes more difficult.’
Obviously, everyone is hoping that some means are found to allow the GAA to get up and running again for a wide variety of reasons including mental health and club and county finances etc., but at this moment in time it just looks impossible.
Where there might be some room for optimism could, ironically, be in the more forgotten or overlooked entities within the GAA.
Take the poc fada for instance. Having long lost the prestige it once carried, is it possible that this could be one of the very few sporting events that could take place in 2020 in terms of the GAA?
Recreational golf and tennis are reopening for business on Monday next so surely poc fada is a runner.
National PRO for poc fada is Co. Wicklow’s Dave Murray and he says that he is hopeful but not optimistic for the poc fada to be staged in 2020.
Likewise, if any GAA activity could happen then surely handball would be quicker to return than football or hurling given the low numbers taking part. Obviously, strict criteria would have to be followed but that’s more likely than full contact sport.
And then you have the long suffering entity that is Scór and Scór na nÓg. Could we see a marked increase in entries across the country this year as people look to pursue GAA activities outside of the main ones, and could we see the event taking on a more digital feel given the current climate?