GAA should follow NPHET

T was Pat Spillane’s Howard Beale moment: he’s mad as hell and he’s not going to take it any more. It’s time, the Templenoe man feels, to swing open the gates of GAA pitches around the country and “let kids play again”. Spillane’s Sunday World column last weekend was something of a Rorschach test for people. As many people who backed the thrust of his argument, felt it wasn’t worth paying heed to simply because he isn’t a medical expert. Opinion split right down the middle. A Marmite column from a Marmite columnist.

We have to say though we would lean more towards the Spillane side of the argument than to his detractors’. The world is beginning to open back up again, why shouldn’t the GAA? That’s not to say that we should be complacent here off the back of a week or two of positive data, but surely we can begin to dip our toe back in the water. As it stands it feels as though the GAA is acting out of a surfeit of caution. The closer we move towards June 8 and the next phase of reopening, the more out of step it looks that the GAA will keep its facilities under lock and key until the end of July. Speaking of medical experts, it’s worth remembering that they’re the ones who have given the green light for “team sports training in small groups (but not matches) where social distancing can be maintained and where there is no contact”. If it’s good enough for the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) it should be good enough for the GAA. If it’s good enough for Tony Holohan and Cillian de Gascun, it’s good enough for us we have to say. That alone probably wouldn’t be enough for Spillane, but it’s a sensible intermediary step. Yes, it will be difficult for GAA clubs to ensure compliance at all times, all the same the attempt has to be made. As people like TJ Reid and Steven McDonnell have pointed out on social media, people are adhering to social distancing as it stands and people would probably be willing to volunteer their time to ensure that it works. Like him or loath him Spillane hit a nerve last weekend. He’s not alone and he can’t be ignored.