GAA is left scrambling in the terrifying dark as a result of unprecedented shutdown

Calendar may be squeezed like never before

THE GAA pulled its shutters down yesterday, with no indication when it will open again for business. The suspension of all activity ensures that the shutdown will be absolute, in the process ending speculation that the Allianz Leagues would limp to their conclusion behind closed doors – a prospect accommodated by a government direction which sought to set a limit on all outside gatherings of 500 or more. But even before Croke Park announced its blanket suspension, Dublin County Board led from the front confirming that it was suspending all GAA activity, including the training of all teams under its auspices, to remind that yesterday’s decision is designed to protect those who play as well as those who pay to watch. The consequences for the GAA will impact far beyond that March 29 deadline, which was significant in that it is also the date which the Allianz League finals had been scheduled to take place in Croke Park. It immediately raises the spectre of the final two rounds of the Allianz League being played in April, a period that is currently ring-fenced exclusively for club games. However, far more pressing than the internal tensions such a move would generate is the likelihood that March 29th may merely be the first of many deadlines which will be extended as the country seeks to delay the impact of the Coved-19 virus. With worst-case scenarios of half the entire population being infected, the expectation is that the measures announced yesterday will reach far deeper into the year than what is little more than a fortnight’s window. And it does not have to reach too far deep to create all kinds of problems for Croke Park as, for the first time since the Civil War in the 1920s years – when it was regularly disrupted – the threat to this summer’s championship plays for real. That is the worst-case scenario, but it certainly becomes ever more likely that the championship will not run as planned. Yesterday’s decision to suspend the league plays into that. The GAA had been particularly keen to get the round-robin stage of the Allianz Leagues concluded, with its CCCC understood to have considered only scheduling those games which were ‘active’ in terms of determining promotion and relegation issues in the final round. That pressure was accentuated by the fact that at the GAA’s Special Congress last year, a decision was taken to link teams finishing league positions to championship status. It allowed for the two top teams in Division Three to be promoted to be assured of a place in the 16team Sam Maguire series, with the two teams relegated from Division Two dropping into the Tier Two Tailteann Cup, unless they reach a provincial final. The issue, not surprising given there are two rounds still to play, is that those places are yet to be filled. Indeed, in Division Two all eight counties, including table-toppers

Armagh and Roscommon, could mathematically be relegated and, while Cork are virtual certainties for promotion, they could still be mathematically overtaken by Down and Longford. Indeed, Derry, Offaly, Tipperary and Leitrim are not mathematically – even if reason and form would suggest officially – out of the promotion race. If the league is not concluded, the Tier One and Tier Two championships can hardly be constructed as envisaged. And if the GAA compromised by allowing for all those permutations, it would mean no relegation from Division Two and seven counties from Division One imported into Tier One. That would leave the Tier Two championship looking every bit as anaemic as the Tommy Murphy Cup, restricted to division four teams, which preceded it. That is not going to happen but, if this turns out to be a lengthy delay, it may well force the GAA hands into a modified championship, which is likely to include the suspension of a tiered championship. Indeed, even at this early stage speculation is mounting that the

GAA may have to revert back to an old-style provincial based, qualifier and Super 8’s free zone, knock-out All-Ireland championship. In the event of a prolonged shutdown to the GAA season that will look more attractive, although not necessarily to the GAA’s bank account – such a move would also be complicated given its media right’s package is based on an expanded format – as its calendar faces the prospect of being squeezed like never before. The suspension of all GAA activity means that the club game is also facing into the great unknown, but in the knowledge that its window this year will be tighter than usual. Only time will tell how tight, but a delayed inter-county season could even lead the GAA to suspending the provincial and All-Ireland club championships for a season. ‘We will continue to liaise with Government officials and review the situation between now and the end of the month, assessing the impact of these measures on our competitions,’ concluded the GAA statement yesterday. But it’s the impact this virus has on Irish society which will ultimately determine when the shutters come up. Right now the GAA, like everyone else, is left scrambling in the terrifying dark.