Confidence in the future is building
“It was in contravention of the GAA’s return-to-play protocols”
EXPERIENCE may well be something you get when you don’t get what you want, but its value is generally the greater for that.
It is five weeks since GAA pitches opened for training, two weeks since the whistle was blown to allow for the return of competitive action, but even in that short window the lessons learned thus far have provided some comfort.
More importantly, they have also provided some sense of clarity to the one big imponderable; will there be an intercounty championship this winter?
It feels a lot more likely to happen now than it did a fortnight ago, when fear trumped fortitude and scepticism trumped science.
Despite the scientific advice of virus transmis- sion being 19 times less likely outdoors and, as a result of the minuscule amount of time players are in close contact, the virus spreading in a game environment was minimal, the GAA’s exceptionalism mindset still needed reassurance.
The physicality element of Gaelic games in particular meant that a study on the amount of time English Premier League players spent in each other’s personal space in game-time was easily binned.
And when the same company, Newry-based Statsports, produced a proximity study on Gaelic football and found the average incursion of a two-metre circle experienced by a player was just 2.5 seconds – less than the 3.3 seconds average in soccer – it too was met with suspicion.
Understandable on the grounds that the likes of Michael Murphy, David Clifford or Con O’Callaghan – and any other forward with menace in his boots – could only fantasise about experiencing such solitude in game-time.
Despite the medical reassurance that in a game where contact is a given and hyperventilation a constant, the infection risks remain very low, the discomfort that science was infected by optimism played for real.
That may still be the case for some, but as the weeks pass by the science holds and the fear subsides.
The news the GAA was dreading to hear broke this week when it was reported that three players from the Killeavy club in Armagh had tested positive.
The news of clubs ‘temporarily suspending activities’ has become so familiar that it no longer merits much ink or attention. In the vast majority of cases, it is because of a single individual testing positive and, as with the 10 clubs in Derry, as a result of clusters in the community rather than anything that had happened inside a club gate that forced the decision.
Killeavy was different because it involved multiple players – at one stage it had been rumoured that up to five players had tested positive.
That led to fears that the infection could have been transmitted on the pitch but reports that the three players who were positive had all travelled to an away reserve fixture in the one car will have come as a relief.
It is, even though confirmation has yet to be delivered, likely that the journey rather than the destination was the source.
It was also in contravention of the GAA’s return-to-play protocols – only family members are advised to travel to games together – but that is much preferable than had it contradicted the science-based advice. Indeed, it also reaffirmed the wisdom that the worst experience makes for the best lesson, and reminded GAA clubs that the directives on the return to play are not to be trifled with, but to be adhered to.
That is something Tyrone felt obliged to remind its clubs after Eglish last week used its indoor pavilion to allow its players to tog out before subsequently confirming that one of its players had tested positive.
As confidence builds that the risk of training and playing is minimal, the likelihood that the inter-county season will proceed becomes more realistic. Of course, the future is still a mystery, but if the participants are not at risk to themselves or pose a risk to their families and community by so doing, all the other obstacles to a resumption shrink.
That includes the thorny issue of how many people will be allowed into stadiums to watch.
As ham-fisted as the Government’s decision to not increasing outside gatherings to 500 – in the process equating it the same risk level as opening pubs when pausing Phase 4 – it too has facilitated a new experience for the GAA.
In the absence of supporters at games at grassroots level, the games are being brought to supporters through streaming networks with the agreement of the GAA’s media rights partners.
The same, in a worst-case scenario of a behind-closeddoors championship, can now apply for the intercounty game.
It may well just be a player’s championship, but as long as it is safe it will be a good one.