Cahill stopped Waterford training before GAA's call

Waterford hurling manager Liam Cahill has revealed that he stepped out ahead of official GAA guidelines and cut training for his players to provide some badly needed clarity.

Deise chief Cahill gathered his players on a Zoom call last week and informed them that they were released from formal training, a week before yesterday’’s GAA decision to follow suit.

Waterford had been due to play Cahill’’s native Tipperary in the opening round of the Munster SHC this Sunday though with no sign of a concrete schedule in place, and the GAA now confirming it doesn’’t expect county games until October at least, the manager felt obliged to act.

"That was 100 per cent the whole idea, to offer them a little bit of clarity," said Cahill. "There are a lot of people far more qualified than me who will tell you that keeping physically active and keeping your mental health right is very important, and of course it is, but it can also be a mental burden, that feeling that you have to be constantly on, constantly training to meet the demands of Championship hurling.

"That was why we did it and look, yes it’’s a balancing act but we’’ve asked them not to lose total accountability but to also realise that we’’ve taken away that rigid strictness of a training programme."

Cahill said that An Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’’s suggestion that Championship activity might be ’’possible’’ in ’’August and September’’ gave everyone a lift though the latest GAA statement has pushed that back to October at the earliest.

Cahill said it is a frustrating and ’’disheartening’’ period but acknowledged the difficult position the GAA finds itself in.

"It’’s very much a waiting game at the moment, even though I know we all crave a bit of clarity and certainty," he said. "The officials within the GAA want to make sure that there’’s a high possibility that games can actually go ahead and that it’’s realistic before they guarantee anything. I can see where they’’re coming from even though it’’s frustrating for players and management. I understand the logic behind it."

Cahill said his personal feeling is that living alongside the COVID-19 threat may be something we all have to get used to.

"If they can’’t develop a vaccine, or if it takes three, four, five years even, where do we go then? There’’s risk in everything we do and it could very well be a case that, as a nation, it’’s a case of how do we learn to live alongside this in some form or fashion."

Yesterday’’s GAA statement refused to rule out games being played behind closed doors though noted pointedly that ’’there appears to be a lack of appetite for this solution.

"It’’s a meeting of a lot of mixed opinion," said Cahill. "I suppose I’’m on the side where I’’d be saying, some games would be better than none. For the players, I don’’t think they’’d have an issue once they get the opportunity to display their efforts. Obviously then from a health and safety aspect, everything has to be right. From what we’’re led to believe, it isn’’t safe for contact sport but when will it be? When will it ever be?

"I don’t know who is going to have the authority to really call this and put their head on the block and say, ’’This is okay to go ahead’’."