John Fogarty: What Championship day could look like
It’s October 25. Clare and Limerick are in Thurles for their Munster SHC first round game to begin the Championship in earnest.
RTÉ cameras are on site as are the various print, online and radio members of the media, provincial and county officials and stewards. But other than them and the teams and management teams, there isn’t a sinner.
The GAA hold out hope that the Championships won’t end behind closed doors in December but they will start without spectators.
Semple Stadium has four large dressing rooms but as per Public Health guidelines they are still ruled out of bounds so the teams tog out in marquee tents set up in Dr Morris Park and the Sarsfields pitch behind the Town End terrace.
It’s not ideal not least because of the gale that is blowing but that’s there where they will also retire at half-time.
Unlike club games, pre-match team talks won’t boom around the vacant Kinane and Ryan stands. John Kiely and Brian Lohan rightly want to speak to their men outside the opposing camp’s earshot.
They can’t help if their water break chats are picked up by the microphones on the sideline but before and at the interval they want their privacy.
Early last year, Tipperary manager Liam Sheedy joked that he knew the game had changed from 2010, the last time he managed the county, when he saw Limerick taking two buses to games.
Well, today Limerick like Clare come in a convoy of four buses, some of the backroom team members coming via car, all to ensure social distancing restrictions are followed.
RTÉ, Sportsfile and Inpho’s cameras capture the images of the masked players disembarking and removing their face coverings in the open air.
With no traffic to encounter, the need for a Garda escort might not seem apparent but to ensure the squads arrive at the same time both were led to the stadium. It’s just one of the many logistical boxes that needed ticking on the day.
The restrictions mean the squads can’t all eat together but must do so at the same time so their meals three hours before throw-in are consumed in small pods at nearby hotels.
The security presence is strong outside the stadium to ensure the game is behind closed doors.
Opportunistic fans are turned away and retired to nearby hostelries like Lar Corbett’s to eat, drink and take in the game on TV.
The vast majority of fans have sensibly stayed away, the pleas from Kiely and Lohan during the week to support the teams from home helping to drive home the message to those who so dearly would love to attend.
The Thurles Sarsfields and Dr Morris Park areas are deemed green zones, similar to the stadium Covid classifications set out by the Premier League.
Limerick, who have been designated Dr Morris Park to prepare, will be subject to temperature checks as they enter under the Kinane Stand and through its tunnel to the field. Clare, based on the Sarsfields field, emerge onto the field via the emergency tunnel between the Ryan Stand and Town Terrace.
The temperature check has been a bone of contention as besides the possibility of it impacting team plans at the 11th hour it could create a stigma about an amateur player.
However, it is part of the biosecurity rules set out for the inter-county game and is deemed a less invasive, less expensive option to mass testing panels before games. If a player’s temperature reads over 37.2 degrees, he will not be permitted entry but can be retested only after being isolated.
The same applies for anyone who is on the stadium’s access list.
Despite some calls from for the role of the maor uisce to be revived, the Central Competitions Control Committee refuse to budge.
How rugby players have been using mini water bottles to avoid sharing but the GAA are keen to keep the sidelines less populated.
Limerick are assigned the Kinane Stand, Clare the Ryan Stand so any chance of animation between the management teams is gone, Kiely and Lohan patrolling each sideline with only their own for company.
With no crowd on his back, the referee feels less intimidated although he is able to clearly make out what each side thinks of his decisions and as a result they have to tread carefully.
In this case, being sent to the stand is no punishment so they can be removed from the stadium entirely.
After a burst of rain towards the end, the drenched players return to their marquees where they change into dry clothes and return to their buses as they must wait to use shower facilities elsewhere. Kiely and Lohan conduct their respective media interviews at a separate media marquee.
Who won, you ask? Pardon the twee if we say the game of hurling. Simply because it was played.
So Taoiseach Micheál Martin claims the Government have “saved” the Championship and the Allianz Leagues by insisting on no crowds.
Funny but we do remember his predecessor Leo Varadkar back in May saying there would be a Championship behind closed doors.
Like Martin, Varadkar appreciated the value of a Championship going ahead but it’s a bit rich to expect the GAA to borrow to effectively pay for one so that, as Martin claims, the competitions would stand “as a symbol that the country is fighting this virus".
Unless there’s an extra funding package on the way, it’s the GAA that will ensure there’s a Championship.
That’s not to say the Government haven’t created the environment for one to happen.
Even in a county such as Kildare where there are heavier Covid-19 restrictions, they could play Championship this weekend as they are officially permitted to do so despite effectively being in lockdown.
That begs the question why did GAA president John Horan claim county teams could be forced to give walkovers if there are outbreaks in their counties.
“We will have protocols in place that if a county goes down, because of the narrow timeframe in which we are running the competition, they will just have to step aside," he said on Sunday.
The GAA have played it incredibly safe for most of the pandemic hence their frustration with last week’s measures to prevent supporters from attending games.
To remove a team especially when it’s expected spectators will continue to be banned seems a drastic measure.
By all means, where there is an outbreak in a county panel then they must bite the bullet but if the Government allows a team to play on then the GAA should do likewise.
You could understand the vindication in Wexford chairman Derek Kent’s programme notes for last Sunday’s senior county final.
He and his executive had been lambasted for splitting their club window but the hurling championships could hardly have gone better.
From that very first day of the GAA’s resumption on July 17 when St Martin’s faced Oulart-the-Ballagh, the country had looked on Wexford as guinea pigs.
Condemned by the Club Players Association, Kent and his officials had been accused of drafting their club championships to Davy Fitzgerald’s will when Fitzgerald had nothing to do with it (earlier in the lockdown, Kent and Fitzgerald had clashed on what the GAA should do: Kent stressed clubs should go first while Fitzgerald argued county).
In one of the strongest dual counties, dual teams prospered in the hurling championships when in the past alternating between the two codes had upset them.
That ability to concentrate upped the standard and combined with the schedule of games and the structure of the competition made it one of the most memorable championships.
Undoubtedly, some of that glowing analysis is coloured by the sheer relief in playing Gaelic games when it had been in doubt earlier in the year.
But such was the success of it that Wexford intend sticking with dividing their club season. Waterford, who followed their example, are believed to be thinking the same.
Wexford led the way in the rising popularity of the split season.
Shouldn’t we have expected the men of the pike to be the pioneers?
