A lot of work to be done before clubs can return - Kennedy
By Shane Brophy
Tipperary County Board are playing a waiting game before formulating a plan for resuming club games in 2020.
Last weeks government announcement that mass gatherings over 5,000 people were banned until at least the end of August virtually ensured the inter-county championship would be deferred from the summer months but opened the possibility of club games resuming before then.
However the likelihood is that competition structures in the county will have to change and that will require special convention of Tipperary County Board to take place to grant a derrogation from rule 6.21, similar to the recent Special Congress of the GAA, to give a special committee within the county the power to change championship formats.
“We have stalled on making that decision as we don't know if we are going to be playing club in August and September, or September and October and beyond. This situation could be with us until 2021 so it is hard to know,” said Tipperary competitions controls committee chairman and county vice chairman Joe Kennedy.
“It will have to be passed by county committee which would require a conference call or webinar to hold a meeting.
“We are waiting until after May 5th to see what the lie of the land is at that stage and whether a clearer picture emerges as to what might happen. You could go off and make great plans for a competition but in a months time they could be out the window. No matter what we decide to do it will have to be slimmed down.”
Tipperary will have to invoke such an alteration to its rules as currently the adult hurling championships have both a divisional and county championship link which takes up to 10-11 weekends to complete, well in exceeding the eight weeks that is rumoured that counties will have to complete their club championships. That eight weeks would also include football competitions as well and Joe Kennedy admitted tough decisions will have to be made to get everything played if it comes to it.
“If we got only eight weeks, would clubs be better off focusing on one code and finishing it,” he suggested.
“Also, you could get them started and play them to a certain date and play the concluding stages after Tipperary are finished in the championship. There's a whole lot of possibilities.
“The big problem I see is if we go into August or September and you get bad weather it's going to be very hard on pitches even if competitions are straight knockout or knockout losers group at best.
“The irony is we had a whole pile of games from 29-30 March to 12 April and the weather we had we could have gotten them all played. We got three of the best weekends in the spring in thirty years but that's just they way it is.”
With sixteen teams in the group stages of the county championships at senior and intermediate hurling and football, if decoupled from the divisions for one year, it would take six weekend to complete a championship in each code with teams getting three games each in the current four groups of four format. The same six weeks would also be required if they went down the knockout losers group format but clubs would only be guaranteed two games each.
However, Joe Kennedy warned against clubs getting too excited about returning to action as that in itself would create a number of other issues, particularly for the individuals involved, including referees, selectors and players themselves.
“If you take the likes of Noel McGrath who has had treatment for cancer, how comfortable would he be of playing or sharing a dressing room with 25 other people and they sweating. You couldn't double the size of the dressing rooms overnight.
“I'm sure there are players that are living with elderly parents who might have been getting treatment for something, how safe would it be for them,” he said.