Logistical Nightmare Awaits GAA
Founded in 1884, the Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA), has witnessed many challenging times.
Through times of war, both at home and further afield, crippling financial crises and mass emigration, the cornerstone of Irish life remained ever-present.
But the threat we now face is unprecedented and the GAA is being forced to adapt to a situation that it has no road map for.
The GAA season, for both Gaelic football and hurling, entails league and championship fixtures at club and county level- all of which have been put on hold until April 19 at the earliest.
The club league season overlaps with the end of the national leagues, while the club championship season overlaps with the end of the All-Ireland championships.
Because of this set up, club and county league fixtures have been axed under the current Covid-19 measures and the All-Ireland football and hurling championships, the GAA’s crowning glory, have been called into question.
Despite cancelling the first round of matches in the All-Ireland football championship, which were due to be played in early May, GAA director of club, player and games administration, Feargal McGill says the championships should be able to go ahead, with some tweaks, if play resumes by mid-June.
Getting the show back on the road by this time seems less and less likely as the days go by.
Chief Medical Officer Tony Holohan pointed out during a press conference this week that Ireland was still only in the very early stages of the pandemic.
Mr McGill also said that the GAA are eager to see out the national leagues, which had two rounds of group stages remaining, in order to facilitate the promotion and relegation of teams in those competitions.
Lost amongst all of this are the club championships.
If the postponement of matches takes place, it will drive the inter-county action into the club season, the grassroots competitions which the GAA claims to hold in the highest regard, in line with their community ethos.
This pandemic will reveal a lot about the true nature of the organisation. Will they push to stage the All-Ireland championships so they might balance the books, or do they mean it when they say club championships are of utmost importance?
The club championships have to be put first, because without our clubs there would be no counties.
At a time when we’re being told to stay local, it seems daft to be organising matches at a national level before that of neighbouring clubs.
A logistical nightmare awaits the powers-that-be in the GAA, but Covid-19 has shaken us out of a slumber.
Regardless of the outcome of the GAA’s rescheduling, there will be a cohort who will be disappointed, but we now know that disappointment isn’t fatal.
Sport isn’t life or death and rescheduling matches is meaningless when the number of people dying of coronavirus is climbing every day.
While the country braces itself for one of the biggest health crises since the foundation of the State, the resumption of GAA will be a light at the end of the tunnel for many people.
The GAA has weathered many storms and this will be no different.
