Mike Quirke: Securing the right result against a shared opposition is now our priority
The best way I could describe jumping into your first year of senior inter-county management is like taking that freezing cold shower as soon as you step out of the sauna. It awakens senses that were happily lying dormant just a short time earlier.
It’s hectic trying to get everything organised, but not as mad as some would have you believe.
That is, until a pandemic hits and everything gets turned completely on its head.
Like any article with even a loose connection to sport written around now, this comes with a significant caveat that sport should be taken for just what it is; a frivolous diversion from the far more serious and pressing issues being experienced by everybody on our island and beyond.
On one side of the coin, Covid-19 makes us all realise just how trivial and unimportant sport can be in the grand scheme of things.
We regularly eulogise players or managers who kick a great score under pressure or secure an impressive result over a more vaunted opponent. But there is no greater burden or more ruthless adversary than what we are facing right now.
The longer this situation rolls on, so does our shared understanding that real pressure doesn’t occur between the white lines of a playing pitch but instead could be about trying to financially sustain a family where one - or both - parents have been made unemployed due to this crisis.
And securing the right result is about protecting our older and more vulnerable members of society by keeping our physical distance but by also trying to be as present as possible.
On the flip side, it also shows us how much we desperately need the values of sport in our lives to give us a positive distraction away from the toughest of times. It gives us a sense of purpose and something to belong to when many people are struggling to figure out which way is up.
Just look at the way the GAA, and many other organisations, all over the country are rallying around their community and helping in any way they can. Even without competition, clubs are encapsulating the inherent volunteerism and community spirit associated with the organisation.
When the first images of Croke Park being used as a drive-through test centre for the virus emerged several days ago, it conjured up feelings of great pride and hope for people who align themselves with the GAA.
With five rounds of the Allianz Football League in the books, we in Laois were preparing to wrap up our campaign with away games against Westmeath and Fermanagh. The prospect of either promotion or relegation were still live options – as they were for most teams.
It seems increasingly unlikely we’ll get to see how it would have played out to a conclusion.
It was an incredible competition whatever way it wraps up. I mean incredible in its truest form, the landscape of Division Two was hard to believe.
Before a ball was kicked, it was a division devastated by the highest number of players opting out of the inter-county game.
Big names stepped away from nearly every county and it was fascinating to see how teams coped and adapted to their new player profile.
Given the consequences of any potential relegation from Division 2, the drain of some of the top talent in the tier only added to the sense of uncertainty and excitement heading into the season. It’s been over two weeks now since Covid-19 properly entered our consciousness from a football perspective. In the early stages, rumours of players on other teams picking up the virus prompted hastily drawn up guidelines about players bringing their own water bottles to training and so on.
This was back when none of us had any real appreciation about what the country would be facing – it was a simpler time when we were far more concerned about the surface of the warm up area in Cusack Park or what squad we would pick to try and get the two points rather than social distancing or self-isolating.
Once word of school closures came through, it would have been inappropriate for the GAA to take any decision other than to suspend the playing of our competitions. We last trained on Wednesday, March 11 and got word the following afternoon that we were to shut down all activity with immediate effect.
A message was sent out to the players and that was that.
From my experience in Laois, as I’m sure is the same in every other club and county in Ireland, players were given their own programme to work on individually and asked to take responsibility for their own fitness and skills during this period.
Some supplementary work will be done online but there will be absolute adherence to the GAA’s policy in the strictest sense and there will be no collective work of any kind in the gym, on the field or anywhere else while we’re in this shut down.
I say this not to highlight any laudable action on our part, but simply to confirm what everybody already knows, football and hurling or any other sport is never as important as we like to think it is, especially right now. Ultimately, it’s just a game, played by people who go home to their young families, to their parents, grandparents, friends and neighbours. They are a part of the fabric of their community and there will be plenty of time for training and playing games once this dark cloud passes over.
Everybody is muddling through as best they can, trying to make the most out of a really bad situation. In the long run, it could well turn out to be a good thing for players to be forced to take more ownership of their own preparation for a while.
For now though, whether its collecting medication for somebody and leaving it outside their door, or just simply committing to staying at home and not meeting your friends on the beach, we as a GAA community must continue to exemplify everything that is good about our sport and be there to help those that need it most.
