Ticket issues, hand sanitisers and outbreaks fail to spoil a weekend of fun and games

Declan Bogue

Window of opportunity: Supporters watch on from their car as Crossmaglen Rangers and Maghery Seán McDermotts play a league game at Felix Hamill Park in Maghery, Armagh. Photo: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

SPORTSFILE

July 20 2020 02:30 AM

On the first day back for Gaelic games since the coronavirus pandemic forced all sport into lockdown, the eyes of the nation were always going to be focused on the mouth-watering tie on Friday night in the Wexford Senior Hurling Championship.

TG4 were there at Chadwicks Wexford Park to capture the meeting of St Martin's and Oulart-The Ballagh.

The Wexford chairman Derek Kent gave a journalist a tour of the stadium where there were 50 hand sanitisers dotted around the place.

Social distancing was rigidly adhered to, while the players more or less forgot themselves with habits of a lifetime by clasping hands to wish each other luck at the start of the game - and at the end.

And, of course, events in Magheralin on Friday night took on an importance beyond a mere game of football as East Belfast GAA took part in their maiden game in the Down All-County Football Leagues, giving a good account of themselves for long periods before going down on a scoreline of 2-10 to 2-5.

Elsewhere, the tinsel wasn't firing out of the cannon in such gay fashion.

As Friday progressed, the toll from the Covid-19 outbreak in Limavady was churning up the fortunes of clubs in north Derry. Ten clubs at the last count have suspended their activities, and public opinion on each of them falls largely in line with your own personal views of how the pandemic should be treated.

In any case, there were no fixtures slated for the weekend in Derry.

At the Kilcar-Killybegs game played at Kilcar's stunning grounds in Towney, supporters took advantage of the fine weather to graze on a grass bank. It felt like a throwback to old times before a world of concrete and steel.

In Leitrim, players were handed one admission ticket each for league games over the weekend. Having to decide who was the lucky recipient would test many a family.

And, in other places, clubs just did nothing. Gates were left open. Teams togged out together in dressing rooms. Handshakes and bear hugs bookended the games.

There's no point in witch hunts. How can players sit together for a team photograph and yet be expected to socially distance in a team huddle?

How can you maintain a two-metre distance from your fellow man or woman, when a game is in play? It just cannot be done.

Blaming or identifying clubs for any possible breaches of guidelines is pointless when games are staged by the GAA.

There are dissenting voices. The GAA historian and author Paul Rouse laid it all out in simple terms over the weekend on a discussion on Newstalk's Off The Ball.

"You can't read the Covid stories in the sports pages without reading the Covid stories in the news pages," said Rouse.

"While Covid hasn't roared back, it hasn't gone away, and it wouldn't take a huge push to get around the country again."

"If you look at the GAA, it has presented itself as a community-based organisation.

"It does not run itself in the professional context like the major leagues of European sport and of American sport who create essential bubbles to protect sportspeople.

"This puts the GAA in a very vulnerable position because if the coronavirus gets into clubs, it will spread across the community. That is going to naturally happen."

Everybody knows that. Sport inspires irrational behaviour, but you have a population that enjoyed games over the weekend like they had never before.

For the sheer pleasure of seeing them. And again, you can't blame them.

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Garden duty: Socially distant stewards, from left, Michael Canavan, Johnny Murphy, Johnny Dunne, John Cullen and Pat Carty look on during the Wicklow County SFC round 1 match between Rathnew and Bray Emmets in Aughrim yesterday. Emmets won 4-13 to 0-12. Photo: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

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