Hallelujah! Football is back at last
OPINION
We are all glad to see the game return but now is an opportunity to right some wrongs, writes DAMIEN DONOHOE.
On March 12 last, I was in Kingspan Breffni to St Mogue’s lift the Ward Cup for the second year in a row with a thrilling win over Breifne College. Little did I know at the time but that turned out to be the last game of football played before the lockdown.
I remember watching it, as the rain pelted down on the roof of the stand, with half an eye on Twitter and seeing stories that all GAA may be suspended for a while - but I didn’t really think the powers that be would pull everything. To be honest, I had very little grasp of what was coming down the line from a public health point of view.
Three months later and there hasn’t been a ball kicked in anger the length and breadth of the country. This is the longest period I can remember of my life to have gone without watching a live game of football. So, the ordinary run of things was about to change to something very different for a GAA nut like myself and many thousands of others like me across the county and the nation.
How has it gone? Well, at first it was a novelty; weekends off, cutting the grass over and over, spending loads more time with the family, BBQs and games of “hello, nice to meet you” with Peppa Pig and every other teddy and doll going.
Having the time to catch up with friends on the phone or on Zoom was an eye-opener as to how time can disappear and lives can change when you don’t check in every now and then. The weather, thankfully, was super so most people were in good spirits and the Covid payment reduced the stress households were under.
It took a little over a month for my wife to ask “when is the football starting back?” after I had once again suggested what I thought may be a better way of doing something. The tone told it all.
So that night I joined an online poker game with some friends to simulate the competitiveness football usually provides. Video chats over a game of poker became the new socialising and it really filled the void football had left - for a while, anyway.
At first, the results didn’t go my way. I was what is known in the trade as a “calling station” and easy pickings for the smarter, more seasoned players in the group. Slowly I was improving but sitting out was never a strong point of mine and as I did so, folding hand after hand to stay in the game, I realised why I love football. Put simply, it’s all action. While there are stoppages and so on, for the most part, once the ball is thrown in, it’s all killer, no filler, as the saying goes.
Aogán Ó Fearghaíl explained to me in an interview one time that the reason we don’t hear long chants from GAA supporters is because there aren’t long enough gaps in the action. By the May bank holiday weekend, I was craving this action again; I found myself wishing for the end to come soon and within a couple of weeks the entire novelty had worn off and I was suffering.
And then, slowly, the clouds began to part and then, all of a sudden, the light broke through. Now, we know for sure that there will be football in 2020 with both club and county.
As of tonight (Wednesday) adult training can return to all club GAA pitches. Expect the biggest numbers seen in years at your club training session tonight as the excitement of coming together to run after that air-filled, leather-cased proves too much for the majority to resist.
The 15-people rule will challenge a lot of coaches and managers as they will have to plan for larger numbers but still keep within the rules or guidelines. Personally, I don’t think it will be followed at all because on Monday (June 29) full contact training resumes. In reality, my hunch is that it will be full training as normal from day one for many teams.
As a result of the government’s announcement on Friday last, the chances are very strong that club league may start on July 17 with a few rounds being played before championship starts. The reality is club players will most likely see a minimum of eight games in the 11 weeks to the end of September. And the teams reaching the latter stages of the championship will get more games.
As a player, that sounds like heaven - more games and less training. I don’t think I’m far off the mark in saying players want to play games but somewhere in the past the GAA forgot about that.
Taking it that a team meets up three times a week between now and the end of September, they will have a 1:4 or 1:5 game to training ratio depending on how far they go in the championship. Usually, and depressingly, over a season a player could count themselves lucky if they get one game to every eight training sessions.
In times of crisis can come opportunities. Now that we’ve got a clean slate with all old rules regarding fixtures out the window for 2020, why don’t we address this problem? It is a conundrum, for sure, but it must be looked at seriously because is is turning people away from the game, at club and county levels.
The proof is there: at county level, there has been an epidemic of talented players, in what should be their prime years, dropping out of panels while in the recent Anglo-Celt survey of club players, a majority signalled that they felt commitment levels were too high.
Given that footballers are competitive by nature and don’t mind a slog, that stat suggests many are simply worn down by excessive training. I know there may be a risk involved but all things worth achieving carry an element of risk.
We more than likely will see an increase in muscle injuries as players go from zero to 100% in a short space of time, a trend which has occurred in professional soccer leagues since their resumption.
I’ve said this before but the team with the most individuals who used the time away to improve their game will likely be successful. Also, big panels will be a huge advantage this year with the championship looking likely to have seven games (including the final) in an eight or nine-week period.
As a result of more regular games, rest now becomes key and managers will soon see that instead of bringing 30 lads together to train twice between games that one training and a Zoom tactical session – a legacy of a lockdown - may turn out to be more beneficial.
Preparations for county football have gone to professional levels over the last few years. We’ve heard stories of teams doing 40-plus sessions in October and November with no game in sight till January. Some county players see very little game time and still have to put in all those hours.
The first four months of the normal inter-county calendar looks great with three or four games in January, three games in February and three or four games in March. After April with the clubs, it’s back to county and for the nine weeks of May and June.
Yet, successful teams will generally get three games and despite having met probably 27 times in that period!
This year give the opportunity for a new road map for the GAA to address the balance of training to games. Now is the time to test the alternative and I really hope we see the balance is tipped back in favour of more matches as a result of the Covid disruption.
Regardless, any match at all is very welcome at the moment.