FIANNA BOSS A CROWD PLEASER

O’hagan’s got high hopes for derby tie with fans

DAMIEN O’HAGAN hopes Ulster GAA chiefs will have relaxed restrictions on fans attending games further by the time “the big one” comes for Coalisland Na Fianna.

The former Tyrone All Star goes head to head with former Armagh ace Stevie Mcdonnell at Edendork on August 13 – when Coalisland face local rivals Clonoe in the first round of the county championship.

“For a big league game you might get 400 max, but for a game like that in the championship, you could get three or four thousand.

That would be the big one,” said O’hagan. “But I expect that if the Covid-19 results keep going the way they’re going, we can get the R rating down to nil in Ireland, and I’d expect that restrictions would be lessened again.”

The NI Executive decided on Thursday night that organisers can decide on the number of spectators that can be admitted to outdoor competitive games within its jurisdiction.

Following consultation with Croke Park, Ulster GAA bosses have put that figure at up to 400, depending on venue criteria, with no fans at all permitted until now.

Grounds that have perimeter fencing with viewing access on all four sides can have no more than 400 people present at a game that includes essential personnel.

The figure remains at 200 in the Republic of Ireland, despite a plea by GAA president John Horan last week for the Irish government to allow 500 people to attend games.

“I think it’s great news for supporters,” said O’hagan. “There was a lot of hassle for gate men, who had to keep people out.

“It’s a better way to handle the situation as long as people keep social distancing.

“To be honest, it has felt like we are playing training matches without supporters being there.

It has been very unusual.”

O’hagan, who won three Ulster titles with the Red Hands but lost in the 1986 All-ireland final to Kerry, contracted Covid-19 in March. But it wasn’t until his son Tiernan’s Sheffield-based company NTL Biologica came to Coalisland to test 90 people at the club for antibodies that a positive test was confirmed.

“I knew it, I felt it,” said O’hagan. “I had severe pain all over in March, it was in my bones and I experienced tiredness over six or seven days.

“Out of the 90, five tested positive for the antibodies, but thankfully I’m fine now.”

Coalisland boss O’hagan and, below in his playing days with Tyrone back in 1986 FIVE Killeavy GAA players have tested positive for Covid-19 and their league game with Granemore has been postponed. Having asked all senior players to get tested in the wake of one case, four more players at the Armagh club have been told they have the virus. However, players from the Eglish club in Tyrone can now resume after just a single player tested positive. He remains in quarantine.