Devane hopeful of earlier facilities opening
By Shane Brophy
Tipperary County Board Chairman John Devane is hopeful the GAA may be in a position to open its facilities earlier than July 20th.
The Boherlahan-Dualla clubman was on the conference call with GAA top brass and fellow county chairpersons last Wednesday when it was announced that all GAA facilities would remain closed until the start of phase 4 of the reopening of the country due to the coronavirus outbreak. This was despite the governments road-map indicating that non contact training in groups of four could resume as early as next Monday.
“People jumped to the conclusion that come May 18th that everything would be opened up,” Devane said.
“However, the GAA are monitoring the phases and I think June 8th (second phase) will be the crucial one that there many be an opportunity to open up around then.”
Devane believes the statement issued by Croke Park last week was a “holding statement” as much as anything else to give GAA people an element of certainty as to what will happen in the immediate future.
“The road-map from the government was about getting over the May Bank Holiday weekend and to bear with us for another while,” Devane felt.
“The date could be brought forward if everything is working out in terms of the numbers of cases dropping and social distancing being practised, we might see clubs being open sooner.
There are a lot of people anxious to get in facilities, even to go for a walk around pitches.”
With the confirmation that the inter-county championships are unlikely to be played prior to the beginning of October, Devane believes it might be safer, if physical distancing measures are overturned, for inter-county to be played before club games.
“You actually have less people involved at inter-county level than you would at club level,” he said.
“However, the general view is we should go with club activities.
“The window is fairly tight in terms of playing club games and preparing properly for inter-county as well. There could be only eight weeks to play club hurling and football championship would be very tight. Even if you went with straight knockout competitions, club players would need time to prepare properly as well.”