Training return another step on road to normality
FOR the past week, the scenes and stories from Northern Ireland have given an insight into what it means to come out of lockdown, from a sporting and societal perspective. BBC sent a camera crew to Bellaghy GAC in Derry to film the joy as club gates were reopened for the first time and players of all ages returned to training. ‘You base your life around it,’ said chairman and coach Kevin Doherty as his son Tomás caught the mood of the past few months better than anyone. ‘It’s been hard. No sport, no school, barely able to socialise. For my age it’s more than a hobby, it’s very competitive. It matters a lot.’ Peter Canavan told this reporter of the excitement around a return that reminded of winning a county title. ‘There’s a great feeling, not just in our club but throughout. It’s like your club has won, it’s that type of feeling. There’s a feelgood factor about the club. People want to get out and play, as if you’d won a championship. So there’s a bit of giddiness about it.’ In a broader sense with society beginning to reopen, Irish Olympian Philip Doyle also spoke last week of where sport fitted in to the bigger picture. ‘Even the pubs opening the other day, it’s not nice to sit outside in the rain and have a pint but I’ve seen videos of people sitting outside, rain teeming down on them. People just want that sense of things coming back to normal. ‘Not that I’ll be sitting out in the rain for a pint but I’ll be definitely in Japan whatever form the games take because when people see that starting up again it gives that sense things are normal again.’ And there’s that same sense about the return of intercounty training, officially allowed from today as per the Government roadmap. Players getting that sense that things are normal again after a turbulent and controversial number of weeks and months. That players can now go training in an official setting under established health protocols should come as a welcome relief, especially against a much brighter backdrop and the impact of the vaccination roll-out. Kerry’s eight-time AllIreland winner and longtime pundit Pat Spillane spoke of the ‘cute hoorism’ that goes far beyond teams just trying to get an edge over each other. ‘Anecdotally, you know a lot of counties are at it. In Ireland, when it comes to cute hoorism, and whataboutery, we’re world champions. Our get-out-ofjail card is, “Well, everyone else is doing it so why can’t we do it”.’ Canavan, too, backed up that anecdotal evidence in the Irish Mail on Sunday, insisting that while Tyrone’s new management duo of Feargal Logan and Brian Dooher have held firm, other counties outside those already caught have not. ‘There would more than a bit of disappointment in that regard because I know Tyrone aren’t one of the teams that have been training,’ said Canavan. ‘I’m aware there are teams that haven’t been caught, that have trained together. I know teams have been training together.’ So there is no getting away from the fact that there is a different feel to the start of the season this year, that it has taken its own toll on plenty of interested parties, not least defending All-Ireland senior football champions Dublin, who have lost Dessie Farrell to a 12-week suspension in a year when more history is on the cards in the shape of a seven in a row. ‘When I heard the Dubs were
“You look up to the Dubs as role models”
breaking the rules, I was stunned. I was shocked, I was amazed,’ added Spillane on the RTÉ GAA podcast. ‘With the Dubs, everything is managed. It’s about protecting the brand. It’s all about controlling the narrative. No-one knows what is happening inside of the camp. ‘It’s a bit like the brightest boy in the class being caught cheating, or you realise that the local parish priest has a wife and family in the next county. You look up to the Dubs as these are your role models.’ This morning, the first of the championship draws go out on Morning Ireland on RTÉ with the full picture to be completed with the remaining draws on the Six One News on Tuesday. For sports fans and players alike, they will whet the appetite for the summer ahead after the toughest of off-seasons.