GAA chiefs plans to resume National League leads to forfeit fears among counties

Fermanagh senior football manager Ryan McMenamin: His panel has a number of confirmed positive cases .Picture: Inpho/James Crombie

The GAA are going ahead with their schedule Allianz League matches although there are grave concerns in some counties that Covid-19 outbreaks in their teams may cause them to forfeit.

A total of 33 league matches, 30 football and three hurling, are down for decision over the weekends of October 17/18 and 24/25.

Despite strong suggestions early yesterday that they could be put off, county chairs in a virtual meeting in the evening were told the matches and venues would take place as planned. That also came despite some calls from travelling counties to move their matches to neutral venues for safety reasons.

The Clare-Fermanagh Division 2 football clash, scheduled for Ennis on Saturday week, is still on the cards despite several players in the Fermanagh set-up contracting the disease. At present, both the panels of Fermanagh and Armagh, who travel to Cusack Park to face Clare the following weekend, have been stood down.

The GAA’s match regulations for the forthcoming league and Championship games in regards to postponements are stringent.

In correspondence to the Irish Examiner earlier this week, Croke Park confirmed that games “where relegation to a lower tier is a direct consequence” can be postponed as well as All-Ireland semi-finals, finals and games where the winners or losers aren’t out again for at least another 13 days.

With Fermanagh currently on two points at the foot of Division 2 and two behind Clare and Kildare, they would be demoted to Division 3 were they to forfeit the fixture. 

It is understood that the exceptional relegation circumstance for a postponement relates to the lower level hurling championships but the argument might be made that going into Division 3 and starting 2021 as a Tailteann Cup team may amount to the same.

Fermanagh manager Ryan McMenamin pleaded for their game against Clare to be rescheduled.

"I think it needs to be a postponement," he told Off The Ball. "If they want to go on ahead more or less in the league without us, that will be the integrity of the league gone.

To me, I think the GAA has got to act quickly and postpone it. We can draw a line under it then and tell the boys how we plan going forward.

McMenamin, who said the team’s hotel in Ennis had cancelled their reservation, added: “Maybe I'm thinking wrong - if this was maybe Dublin or Tyrone and they were in the same situation, would the Ulster Championship match be moved or would it be accommodated for players? You don't know until any of them counties are in that situation.

“At the minute the most important thing for me is the welfare of the players. If we don't go back until next Sunday,we don't go back. But everyone has to be made aware it's not going to be an even playing field when we go back to play the National League games. It's not a fair playing field. 

“You kind of ask yourself should there be relegation in the league, if we're not afforded the same chances as Clare? In fairness, we have been in contact (with Croke Park), we've made our position clear, I was chatting to Paul Flynn in the GPA on Monday. The GPA and Ulster GAA have been helping us.”

At the chairs meeting, a proposal by some counties to stage their away league games at neutral venues was turned down by GAA president John Horan on the basis of keeping the integrity of the competition.

Those counties had been worried about the amount of time players would be spending together on long bus journeys.

The minor and U20 championships also avoided the guillotine but comes after a suite of recommendations were made by the GAA’s Covid-19 advisory group on Wednesday.

In the 26 counties, all training will have to be non-contact and organised in smaller groups of no more than 15, while inter-county challenge matches at minor and U20 level have also been prohibited. Challenge games can continue to take place at senior level.

It was also agreed outstanding club games with county players involved can take place two weeks after their team has exited their province or All-Ireland. As clubs are permitted to continue training, some of the counties who still have games to arrange have already indicated they would give two weeks’ notice before they take place.

Cork GAA’s executive today stated it is their intention to complete their programmes of fixtures and the county’s competitions control committee will rearrange “outstanding fixtures as soon as possible, subject to prevailing government restrictions, GAA guidelines and inter-county championship fixtures.”

No decision has yet been made regarding the county’s outstanding U21 matches.