WE MUST MAKE SURE KIDS ARE ALRIGHT

THE lapse in activity could lead to a player drain at underage level for the GAA, Ronan Sheehan fears.

Children in the north can train outdoors from this week, but it will be Monday week before restrictions are relaxed to that extent in the south. And the down period may result in a number of youngsters packing in the games altogether.

Sheehan said: “I think there’s a real concern that some of the younger kids that are not as confident on the field will just drift away, they’ll feel that this is maybe an opportunity to not come back.

“What’s the one reason young fellas give up hurling? Probably two reasons. One is they get a bad slap and they’re not from a hurling family. That kind of puts them off.

“But the second one is, it’s a hard game to master, it’s a hard game to learn the skills of so you can become discouraged very easily.

“We all have kids that were maybe just hanging in there before the pandemic and didn’t feel they were as good as maybe some of their team-mates and they’re going to probably look at it and say, ‘I haven’t done anything in six months, I haven’t really had my hurley in my hand, what’s the point in going back? Everybody else is going to be better than me’.

“That’s where your coach comes in, you reach out to those kids, try and encourage them to come back.

“You encourage the parents because parental encouragement will be vital in the coming weeks and months. Kids can become very introverted so that would be a real appalling legacy of the pandemic if we allow that to happen.”