GAA still hoping to return in middle of June
THE GAA is still hopeful of a mid-June return to action and that the All-Ireland championships will be completed on schedule. A change in format is likely, though, according to Feargal McGill, director of player, club and games administration, who admitted that hurling might have to revert to provincial knockout, and both codes to a second-chance ‘back-door’ system. The latter means no Super 8s quarter-finals or second-tier Tailteann Cup competition, which was meant to come into being this summer. London’s Connacht SFC first-round match against
Roscommon on May 3 in Ruislip is the latest match to be postponed after the New York-Galway game at Gaelic Park was the first to go. No matter what shape the summer takes, if the championships go ahead Brendan Bugler told Sportsmail that teams will be ready. The Clare All-Ireland winning hurler is involved as a coach with Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford this season and he insisted the bigger picture is what really matters: ‘Look, whatever will be, will be. ‘This is a crisis issue that is so much more important than the GAA right now,’ he said. ‘To put everything in perspective is really
important. Whatever way the championship will be, whatever format it will be, players will just get on with it. Managers will just get on with it… if it’s knockout championship – yeah, every team will be ready for knockout.’ McGill also revealed no decision has been taken on the completion of the 2020 Allianz Football and Hurling Leagues, with the suspension of all sport in this country set to last until at least April 19. Wexford were due to face Galway in a league quarter-final and Bugler is a fan of Sportsmail’s suggestion that the outstanding games could be played in the run-in period to next year’s competition rather than the existing pre-season competitions. ‘Absolutely. I think that’s a brilliant idea. A fantastic idea. It’s a national competition. It would be a shame to not complete it.’ Speaking yesterday on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, McGill stated that there are no changes yet to their current championship structures but admitted it is ‘unlikely’ that the action will commence with a full round of provincial football and hurling championship fixtures planned for the weekend of May 9-10. ‘The same as any sporting organisation, the key to drawing up a fixtures schedule is knowing exactly how much time we have to play with,’ said McGill. ‘And, at the moment, unfortunately we just don’t know. ‘Until we know that, we can’t really make any decisions on tweaking competition structures. ‘But the current situation is that there are no changes to any of our championship structures to date. They’re due to start on May 10 which is well outside the April 19 flag that the Government have planted, if you like. ‘But I do have to concede that it seems unlikely we’ll be back by then. ‘The next critical point for us is likely to be on the week of April 19. We’ve assumed the Government will make some kind of announcement that
week. Whether it’s that we’re going to continue in this restrictive situation or that there may be some light at the end of the tunnel. ‘That week we’ll be able to start planning. Either to proceed from May 10 or looking at revised championship structures that would allow us to play the competitions over a tightened period.’ McGill conceded that sticking to the existing All-Ireland dates of August 16 in hurling and August 30 in football may be only possible if the provincial championships are played as knockout competitions. ‘We would probably do everything in our power to keep the All-Ireland finals where they are,’ he said. ‘As long as we get back on the playing field or we can start inter-county championships before the middle of June then we should be able to retain those dates. ‘We’d probably have to look at straight knockout provincial championships but, potentially, with a back door as well.’