In need of a wash: can winter sport survive without dressing rooms?
Cork City women form a defensive wall in the win over Treaty United Photo via @CorkCityFCWomen on Twitter and @PhotosSalem
Playing sport in the depths of winter without access to dressing rooms or showers — that’s one of the issues occupying sportspeople in all codes over the last few weeks.
“I don’t see that it’s possible not to have access to changing facilities, to not be able to travel on a bus as a team,” said Dublin footballer Sinead Aherne.
“I think we will have to have access to indoor facilities and it’s about having access to that. Even if it’s a case that you have to be split across two or three changing rooms, those are the challenges for women’s sport.”
Cork City striker and Cork ladies footballer Saoirse Noonan experienced the misery of a long trip back from Limerick having faced Treaty United last Tuesday night.
“Being back playing matches is great at the moment but there’s nothing worse than a long bus journey home after playing in the rain and can’t have a shower,” she tweeted.
Being back playing matches is great at the moment but there’s nothing worse than a long bus journey home after playing in the rain and can’t have a shower 🥶 brrrrrrr
— Saoirse Noonan (@saoirse_noonan) September 9, 2020
And Clare footballer Jamie Malone said use of dressing rooms will be vital when inter-county players resume training this week.
"I'm not saying that everyone has to crowd into the showers, just that the option is there for some lads in certain circumstances. Not everyone is going to avail of showers and not everyone is going to be comfortable in them.
"It is for the welfare of the players and it's not crazy to ask to have that facility for lads who need it the most. Even for training, there could be a few lads going a couple of hundred kilometres for a training session and be up again in the morning for work.
"I'd like to think that it will change because it's not good enough. It's not going to attract players and I don't think it's good for players for their physical or mental well-being having to go through that.
"It goes against a lot of health guidelines to have to leave without showering and head back up the road. I understand there are dangers there and that but I don't know if there is enough being done.”
This week our writers talked to representatives from GAA, soccer, and rugby to see how the current protocols are working.
Paul O’Keeffe, General Practitioner and St Finbarr’s football manager, says that bar breaking the rules, there is not a lot clubs can do about the lack of dressing room facilities.
“We have to stick to the guidelines. The dangers of players going back to communal showering is that aerosolisation that you get in the showers, that would be high enough risk in terms of the transmission of the virus.
“From that viewpoint, I can see where the powers-that-be are coming from when they say we don't want fellas going into communal showers and so that is why dressing-rooms are locked off. In terms of making sure we are still able to play, it is a sacrifice. But look, it is like the good old days when fellas used to tog off on the side of the road and dry down on the side of the road afterwards. It is not ideal but you are kinda stuck with it at the moment until the rules change.
“Now, away from showers, I do appreciate players wanting privacy when it comes to togging in and togging off so maybe it could be looked at that if there was a large clubhouse or community hall at the venue in which a game was taking place, that players could socially distance in there so as to have a bit of privacy when getting changed.
“So long as showers remain off limits, all players can do, really, is be sensible post-match. That involves making sure you have packed plenty of clothes in the gearbag so you are not sitting in anything wet returning home after the game.
“Being a city club, we have the luxury in that most of our players live within 20 minutes of any of the venues we have played in. Lads don't have far to travel afterward to get home for a shower.
“The club championships are going to be over in the next three to four weeks. We should dodge the worst of the weather. I would say it will be far more of an issue for the inter-county scene when that restarts next month.”
That's four long journeys since the League of Ireland restarted six weeks ago, each time their players leaving afterwards without being able to take showers.
The restriction is part of the FAI’s Safer Return To Play protocols, a blueprint they’ve had to modify on a few occasions since the pandemic first visited these shores in March.
That the domestic league even resumed wasn’t a certainty, as the deal to compensate clubs for a lack of spectators took months for the FAI to broker, but the new norm is up and running, due to conclude for this season at the end of October.
Cobh’s Covid-19 compliance officer Michael O’Donovan explained how the ritual for the squad and staff hitting the road has altered in the coronavirus era.
“No showers have been available in any of the venues that we have travelled to and it’s the same for clubs visiting Cobh,” he said.
“On the away trips that I have covered, there have been no great differences that I have observed across the various clubs’ procedures.
“We are required to provide contact details for all attending, their roles within the club and undergo temperature checks upon arrival.”
Initially, when the league returned on July 21, around 60 spectators could be accommodated within the maximum attendance of 214 but the State banned supporters once the case-count spiked again last month.
“I think everybody is just glad to be back involved in sport,” reasoned Bray Wanderers owner Niall O’Driscoll.
“The protocols are there to keep us all safe and we’ve no problem complying with them.”
With professional rugby players being part of the ‘elite bubble’ of sportspeople who are being tested regularly, the dressing rooms will be open at the Aviva Stadium on Saturday for the Guinness PRO14 final. But the clock will be ticking for Leinster and Ulster on Saturday night once the full-time whistle blows.
Maintaining Covid-19 protocols to reduce, if not eliminate, the risk of infection including social distancing and a limit on numbers for indoor gatherings means the dressing room areas at Aviva Stadium will have to be cleared quickly after the match.
Having arrived already changed and ready for their pre-game warm-up, the players are allowed to shower post-match, as Leinster Rugby media manager Marcus Ó Buachalla explained.
“The players are allowed to shower but they have to remain socially distanced and you are under the pump in terms of getting out of there as quickly as possible.
“Both teams use both their dressing rooms, whereas normally you would have only one dressing room. Because of social distancing, you’d essentially have the starting XV in one dressing room and then the rest of the matchday squad and extra players in another dressing room.
“The showers are open but it’s only one in every three showers that are functioning, the others are locked off, the same with the toilets.
“It’s a very quick turnaround because they want the dressing room areas cleared off as soon as possible. There has not been a time limit, just pressure to vacate as quickly as we can.
“Not a whole lot will change this weekend. Someone made the point earlier in the week that Covid doesn’t distinguish between a semi-final and a final.”
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