Confirmed: GAA inter-county teams allowed return on April 19

Under-18 non-contact training across all outdoor sports in pods of no more than 15 can return from April 26

The Government are expected to confirm later today that inter-county pre-season can start in earnest from Monday fortnight

GAA senior inter-county teams will be allowed to return to collective inter-county training from April 19.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin confirmed that inter-county pre-season can start in earnest from Monday fortnight followed by under-age (U18) non-contact training across all outdoor sports in pods of no more than 15 on April 26.

Golf and tennis are also set to resume from April 26 with golf courses expected to be initially open to members who live in the same county or within 20km of their local course. 

The Government recommendation for GAA's return from April 19 states: "Training for and playing of National Governing Body sanctioned and organised adult intercounty National Gaelic Games Leagues not including under 20 or minor competitions."

Other high-performing athletes, as approved by Sport Ireland, "can resume" the same day.

From April 26, "outdoor sports facilities can reopen (for example: pitches, golf courses and tennis courts, other facilities as appropriate) and "underage non-contact outdoor training and dancing in pods of 15 or fewer can restart."

The April 19 start date for inter-county training is one week after club training across all ages and grades can resume in Northern Ireland. With the GAA ensuring a four-week run-in to prepare for the season, it means the earliest the first competitive games will take place is the weekend of May 15/16.

The Central Competitions Control Committee will discuss plans for the season after the GAA’s Covid-19 advisory group meet to recommend an official start date and updated return to play protocols.

According to former GAA president John Horan last month, the GAA will be able to complete a full 2021 season should games commence in May.

“If we got going in May, in comparison to last year when it was towards the end of July that we got started, I’d be confident that we will get the games programmes in place and we will get all activities completed.

“We’d have that extra time period from May to July that we didn’t have last year. I am quite confident that a games programme will be there to do the National League, a full club programme, and also the inter-county championship.” 

Truncated, geographically-based Allianz Leagues lasting no more than five weeks followed by Championships run on the same format as last year, a knock-out Sam Maguire Cup and a Liam MacCarthy qualifier system, have been mooted.

Elsewhere, FAI CEO Jonathan Hill has assured all amateur adult teams that the return for underage players is the first step towards a return to football for all grassroots players as Ireland eases out of lockdown.

“We obviously see this announcement from Government as a positive for all our underage players who have waited so patiently for the chance to play football again although, of course, we would have loved this to have been from April 5th but we note the realities of the current situation,” said Hill.

“Non-contact training in pods of 15 represents the start of a return for our game that will see all our players at all ages permitted to train and then to play in what we hope will be the near future. This battle with Covid-19 has been so demanding for Irish society and our footballers have had to endure so much in Level 5 lockdown.

“We thank them for their perseverance and their patience. The adherence to the Government guidelines of our grassroots clubs, their volunteers, coaches, match officials and players, has been exemplary and to be applauded. 

“Our adult amateur game will unfortunately need to continue to be patient as we await a return to training for them and of course playing matches, but our game has proven itself to be safe in a Covid-19 environment and I urge all clubs to maintain this as we return in the first instance to training for our younger players on April 26th.”