Kingston calls on GAA to provide players with clarity

Cork hurling manager Kieran Kingston has called on the GAA to make a definitive decision on their short-term plans for the season for the benefit of the players.

Kingston says it is unfair to ask players to train in isolation without a target date to aim for and that there needs to be a halt called to all action for the month of May for their benefit.

The Connacht Championship games on the first weekend of May have both been postponed, but to date there has been no definitive guidelines beyond that date.

The Cork manager is in the first year of his second term in charge of the county and while directing operations remotely has worked, he thinks players can only self-motivate for so long.

“The one thing that would be helpful to guys that are training on their own and you’re asking them to be self-motivated, they need some sort of a deadline,” said Kingston, who managed Cork to the 2017 Munster final success.

“May won’t happen, so tell us May won’t happen. Say that our proposal is ‘X’, it might change but at the moment that’s the proposal.

“We don’t know how long the ban on collective training will last, but if it is to last for a few months I don’t think it’s practical for lads to continue training on their own for three or four months.

Irrespective of what changes you make to the training programme, I don’t think that’s practical and possible.

“It’s demotivating more than anything.”

Cork’s last competitive game came on March 1 when they were defeated by Galway in Pearse Stadium, a loss that ended their hopes of progression to the knock-out stages of the national league.

The GAA calendar still says their next game is scheduled to be played on 10 May against the provincial champions Limerick in the first round of the Munster Championship, but Kingston thinks that fixture has no chance of taking place at that time.

And while he admitted it is frustrating not being able to direct his squad at this crucial point of the season, he insisted that the health and wellbeing of the public is paramount.

“I think we can all totally understand and comprehend why we have no games. The concerning thing is when you see a lot of sporting organisations cancelling a lot of events right up to the autumn. That would concern you.

“Then you’d be hopeful that there will be some sort of Championship there, that it will take place. I certainly believe it will, but maybe that’s your heart as well as your head saying that.

“You have to take the best advice available and see how this pandemic evolves.

“When it comes to the public health everything else is secondary. There are strict guidelines there and we have to adhere to them.”

Meanwhile, Donegal manager Declan Bonner wants the GAA to propose a provisional date for the start of the provincial championships and believes July or August is possible.

Bonner maintains there will be a Championship this year and has called on Croke Park to set out a draft plan in the event the coronavirus restrictions ease in the coming weeks.

“There will be a Championship, possibly in July,” he told the Donegal Democrat.

“It is a question of what form it will take, I don’t know. But it will probably be on a reduced scale like a knockout later on.

“I can’t see any football being played in the month of May or June, but there is a possibility that the Championship will take place in July or August.

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“I understand people’s concerns, but I think it is a bit premature to be writing off the Championship just yet and we are still only in early April. If the GAA could set a provisional date so that we could start planning accordingly.

“Our backroom teams can then start to taper training to a particular date and even if that does not happen at least players will have had a positive target to work towards.

“It would be great if we could go again in July and then we could be planning. But we have to make sure that the lads will be ready to get back into contact and it is not a case that you would go back in July and straight into action.

“A timeframe would be great but there are more pressing things out there at the minute.”