Ask The Players: Do you feel safe now that you are back playing?

Darragh Kavanagh (Augher footballer)

Have you felt safe since you’ve started playing again?

“In our club we’ve been doing everything by the book. I don’t think there’s any real scares in our part of the world, so it’d be safe enough. There was that scare in Eglish at the start of the league but that was probably always going to happen somewhere along the line, it was inevitable. It’s been grand really there’s been no changing rooms being used, people just change in cars and stands.”

Were you concerned about getting injured given the lack of preparation time before the matches started up again?

“I think our own problem is that a lot of our lads took it for granted that football wasn’t to get started. Over lockdown to be honest we didn’t do a lot, you could do whatever you wanted to do yourself, but it wasn’t a case of having a set programme or having to do this amount of running. Boys probably let themselves go a bit because they took it for granted that there wouldn’t be any football, Now we’re trying to get boys back into shape to get ready for the hectic schedule there’s been. I’ve been lucky enough that I’m naturally enough fit. A few of us went out on runs, we would’ve done a bit and I’ve a bit of a gym out the back of the house so I’ve been keep myself in right shape. It’s easy enough when you’re at my age but it’s harder for the older boys to get back into the swing of things. A lot of our injuries in our team would be the older heads, it isn’t a good situation for them.”

What do you think of the fan situation – should there be less or more than 400 people allowed into grounds?

The first weekend we played there was nobody, it was strange and it was a dead atmosphere, I know there were reports that some places that there might’ve been turning a blind eye but fair play to our opponents Gortin, they didn’t let anyone near the place. Whenever I was watching Coalisland and Clonoe, there was a few hundred there but it was still fierce dead for a big championship game. I’d say for those lads who are used to big crowds, it’s bound to be hard to get yourself motivated. It’s putting clubs in a very bad position as well, you’re hearing stories of rows in clubs because boys are getting tickets and others aren’t. I don’t think in Augher we’ll have the same bother but in those big clubs it’s hard to be turning people away, it must be a nightmare.

What’s your gut instinct about whether the All-Ireland will go ahead?

“Funnily enough when I was walking into the game last night I was speaking to Cuthbert Donnelly, and he said there was a meeting in Croke Park, that there’s been incidents in Dublin where business firms have asked club players in Dublin if they’ve taken part in any GAA activities this week, and as soon as they said they’d taken part, they’d say something like we don’t want to see you for seven days. Word from Croke Park seems to be that unless they can get stuff like that sorted that it’s very hard to see how county football is going to get going because boys have to work at the end of the day. Before that conversation with Cuthbert I’d have been confident enough there would have been an All-Ireland but when you hear stuff like that coming from the top table, you just don’t know. In Tyrone we haven’t had many incidents, and we’ve been fairly by the book with training, but when you hear what’s going on in some other counties, it’s crazy stuff.”

Gareth Concarr (Ardara)

Have you felt safe since you’ve started playing again?

“The club are following all the protocols anyway. I’m a family man with a couple of kids so I’d be wary of being around too many people, but there are hand sanitisers going into every club. Once you’re on the field everything goes out the window, but people are keeping their distance when they need to be and there’s hand sanitizer around the football club, it’s a weird time, everything’s up in the air. Nobody knows what’s going to happen but I do feel safe and there’s no clusters in Donegal so you don’t feel like you’re dodging a bullet.”

What do you think of the fan situation – should there be less or more than 200 people allowed into grounds in the Republic?

“It has to be controlled. In some places there’s cases and in others there isn’t but it has to be one rule across the board at the end of the day. The atmosphere at the games isn’t the same but it won’t last forever. It’s hard to know if the current number is right, it’s difficult for whoever has to make that call.”

Were you concerned about getting injured given the lack of preparation time before the matches started up again?

“They talk about player welfare and we went straight into championship and anyone who knows about football knows that’s not the way it should be done. I was hoping with things up in the air we wouldn’t have to worry about county football and that the club should be priority. It’s important to get small towns and villages up and running and not worry about Croke Park. You’re rushing your ordinary club man back who’s working a 9-5 job, and in a smaller squad it’s going to be harder, A bigger squad has more rest-time, you’re better set-up. Personally I know I wasn’t near right, you’ve no pre-season.”

What’s your gut instinct about whether the All-Ireland will go ahead?

“I initially thought if anything they shouldn’t even be thinking about county football or All-Irelands, just about getting your own communities up and running, in my eyes if you don’t have club football you don’t have county players so why is that a must when club football isn’t even thought of. Get club football up and running if you can and gets towns back to some form of normality. I’m not too worried about the All-Ireland to be honest.”

Conor Johnston (Antrim and St John’s)

Have you felt safe since you’ve started playing again?

“Every club I’ve gone to so far has met the category of being safe. There’s always hand sanitiser and while the no-changing room situation is obviously difficult it’s important at the minute to make sure everyone sticks to the rules. So far so good, really – I haven’t had any bother so far going to the pitches or playing matches.”

What do you think of the fan situation – should there be less or more than 400 people allowed into grounds?

“I am comfortable with the fan situation to be honest, down south the cases have obviously been growing so they’re less keen to open up. At the minute the crowds are probably perfect, there’s not too many so they’re not on top of each other. Maybe by the latter stages of the championship they can allow more people to go to the matches.”

Were you concerned about getting injured given the lack of preparation time before the matches started up again?

““At the start I felt a bit weary after a long lay-off so I did plenty of stretching. I heard all these stories from soccer about the amount of injuries occuring in the Bundesliga for example, so I was wary of that. We play two games a week so recovery has been key, if the recovery time’s not there you’ll not get through the games.”

What’s your gut instinct about whether the All-Ireland will go ahead?

“My head is saying no, but my heart is saying yes, I’d love to see it, but if it didn’t happen…it is what it is. If it was behind closed doors, as long as it was televised I wouldn’t mind anyway.”

Conor Hoey (Dromintee)

Have you felt safe since you’ve started playing again?

“Yeah I’d say so. You have to be realistic, being back playing football at all is brilliant and I think most clubs made a good effort in any game they played whether it’s challenge matches or league matches, I think every club has done well so I have felt safe. There’s hand santisation and we’ve put a different system in as well – changing training schedules so teams aren’t going on and off the pitch at the same time like they would have done in the past.”

What do you think of the fan situation – should there be less or more than 400 people allowed into grounds?

“I think it’d be nice to have some more because of the ticket situation, but I think they’re doing the best they can, down south it’s 200. it all depends on the grounds, if it’s somewhere bigger like the Athletic Grounds it’s easier to distance. It’d be ideal if they could look at at it more on a game by game basis and have more at the bigger games but obviously they have to follow government advice.”

Were you concerned about getting injured given the lack of preparation time before the matches started up again?

“I think more time to prepare would’ve been better. People have to be realistic though – in April and May it looked like there’d be nothing, and they have a tight time-frame to work with as well. If they don’t do the championship now, they’d be running very late. I think they’re got the balance okay, a few weeks more would’ve been great but it’s just good to be playing at all.”

What’s your gut instinct about whether the All-Ireland will go ahead?

“At the end of the day, intercounty is what draws the big crowds, I know from talking to intercounty boys, they want to play whether it’s behind closed doors or not, Maybe more games could be televised so there’s another avenue for supporters. It’d be great because you could see in the last few weeks,, even being able to talk about football is good. I think that’s more important than anything so I think if it doesn’t go ahead it’ll be a big disservice to everyone.”