Stretch in daylight and sunshine give us a welcome lift

IHOPE the improved weather and noticeable stretch in daylight hours helped in lifting the spirits of our readers over the weekend. The things we used to take for granted have been transformed into matters of significance during these difficult times, and hopefully that’s a lesson all of us will take on board whenever we free ourselves from the lockdown shackles.

Certainly, the welcome sight of sunshine and an extra half-hour of brightness was appreciated by anyone I spoke to recently, and we need those little plus points to keep us going.

As I embarked on one of my weekend strolls, the thought occurred to me that if all was well in the world I would have been attending an Allianz League game somewhere instead.

February 27 and 28 were pencilled in as the original starting dates for the second-most important competition on the inter-county calendar on the GAA’s original fixture list, but sadly that wasn’t to be.

Nobody can say with any certainty yet how the playing season will pan out. With every passing week, the danger of the leagues being declared null and void must be increasing, purely for reasons of time, or to be more accurate the lack of it.

Some people are still strongly advocating a club first approach, similar to last year, while others would be more comfortable with the roll-out of the inter-county programme given that it involves fewer personnel.

All of that is outside the GAA’s control to be fair, and we fully realise now that they can only act in accordance with the rules and regulations as laid down by the Government and health officials.

To my way of thinking, the big priority right now is to find a workable compromise that allows our young people to return to some form of activity.

I’m not even suggesting that they be thrust back into competitive fare quickly; just the opportunity to meet up with their friends again in a training setting would be such a huge boost.

Much of the debate tends to focus on our top adult players, but we won’t have anyone to fill their boots when they retire if we don’t ensure as a nation that the health and well-being of young children and teenagers is given top priority.

Bear in mind that a lot of secondary school students still won’t be returning to school until April 12. That’s more than five weeks down the road, so surely they need something at this stage to give them an outlet to meet friends in a relaxed, supervised setting.

Last weekend also brought the announcement of the inaugural Cáirde Loch Garman club team of the year awards, bringing a month of speculation and debate to an interesting end.

The two sides picked have thrown up the usual mix of established county players, promising young guns that deserve their chance with Wexford, and my favourite cohort in any selection of this nature - the good, solid clubman who knows deep down that he’ll never wear the purple and gold, but who will never be found wanting when he puts on his own jersey.

I think I speak for most GAA followers when I look at the club hurling team chosen and look forward to the day when Glen Malone, Jack Cullen, Conor Hearne, Conor Mahoney, Seán Keane-Carroll and Ross Banville will all get their chances on the big stage.

Who knows, maybe Davy might even surprise us and throw them all in together at the same time?!

In other news, there was a significant development for Wexford over the weekend after the completion of annual Congress and the installation of New York’s Larry McCarthy as the new President of the Association.

Anyone with a knowledge of GAA politics - and I can wear that t-shirt after 15 years deeply involved in administration - will recognise the importance of being asked to chair the national CCCC. It’s arguably the most powerful and influential sub-committee of the lot, and it will be led for the next three years by our own Derek Kent.

Congratulations to the Taghmon-Camross clubman on this notable achievement, and here’s hoping that he will be able to get his teeth into the fixtures programme for 2021 sooner rather than later.

In the meantime, keep enjoying the sunshine everybody; it’s true what they say - as long as there’s light, there’s hope.