National Forum

The Corona Virus And Possible Effects To GAA Matches

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I think we all need to accept that sport will be off the table for a fair while yet. There won't be some magical date on which everything goes back to the way it was. As others have said, there will likely be a staggered approach whereby life goes slowly and cautiously back to the way it once was. Sport won't be at the top of that list in terms of priority I'm afraid.

Another thing to consider is that there will undoubtedly be more restrictions at airports in the future. After 9/11, there was a tightening up of security big time. Liquids, searches, etc. I think we can take it as a given that in the future we will also be subjected to health checks/swabs at airport departures and arrivals etc. There will be outcry of course about our DNA being collected and stored in government databases. Just how much of our individual private data and DNA are we willing to give away? But if we wish to continue going on our sun holiday once a year, or that trip to New York we may have no other choice.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9104 - 01/04/2020 13:49:43    2275165

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Replying To roundball:  "This is just not feasible.

Sharing water bottles is something that should be minimised anyway and in most cases teams try and do it at training etc.

The GAA already try to stop large pitch incursions. It's not always possible.

Shaking hands? Banning it? In a contact sport which involves "touch tight" marking. What is the point in that?

Spitting. Obviously spitting at an opponent is abhorrent and will rightly see you hit with a long ban. Stopping someone spitting out water, blood, dirt etc from the mouth is simply unenforceable and may not even be advised in many cases. How is a Physio or Doc supposed to clean a players mouth to assess for injury for example? What if s/he has grass or much in his or her mouth?

Stopping players who are ill from training... Well a good manager and good medical team with will stop players with respiratory or gastrointestinal illness in any event to maximise their players availability and prevent the spread through the squad. But to stop a player playing in an important game because he/she has a sniffle is completely impractical. Especially in elite amateur sport where athletes are often run down and prone to minor infections.

Swapping jerseys- It doesn't happen at club level and the GPA's charter is that county players are allowed keep or swap one jersey per year. Some county boards may allow more. It's a minor risk however


The very reason normal life is not continuing during this pandemic is there are risks associated with our day to day activities, including participating in sport, that are either simply not modifiable or not practical to modify. That is why we have had to grind everything to a halt to try and put the breaks on this thing. In normal times those risks are acceptable, right now they are unacceptable and pose a threat to public health. We don't go back to normal until we can go back to normal. So other than sharing water bottles I don't see any of these measures being practical or necessary when we have this under control. And if they are necessary then we probably shouldn't be playing."
Shaking hands won't be a problem.

If the risk of infection is so high that it can still be passed on by shaking hands, there won't be any games to shake hands at.

lionofludesch (Down) - Posts: 475 - 01/04/2020 13:55:10    2275166

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Replying To lionofludesch:  "Shaking hands won't be a problem.

If the risk of infection is so high that it can still be passed on by shaking hands, there won't be any games to shake hands at."
I agree. If you can't shake hands then I'd say physical competition would be out of the question.

Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 2111 - 01/04/2020 15:57:26    2275174

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Replying To Onion Breath:  "Lots of April fools on here talking about this is going to change that's going to change etc. No more handshakes some say LOL.

When this all passes I've no doubt it'll all be back to normal with players being drowned in spit, before and after the obligatory handshakes of course.

I think this forum needs to consider shutting down temporarily again."
"drowned in spit". Ha ha ha. I had to laugh.

Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 2111 - 01/04/2020 17:57:31    2275179

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Replying To Administrator:  "A very good post from Zinny on the Wexford forum:

I think the one thing that has not yet been discussed is how Covid 19 will change the rules and behavior of our games.

The most basic one - nobody will be allowed share water bottles. This will have a major impact as players will have to have one bottle assigned to them and only be allowed use that one. The water man with his single bottle will be gone as there is no way he can use it. Does it mean specific water breaks during a game? who knows.

All pitches were games are played will have to be fenced and only players and management allowed into the grounds. After game pitch incursions at all levels have to go.

Shaking of hands before and after games will have to stop.

Spitting at a player - thankfully not something you often see but the penalty will have to be even more severe.

Spitting or spitting out of water after drinking etc all have to stop on the pitch - this will be a hard one for some people to stop but stop it has to.

Players who are not feeling well or just recovered from illness should have a minimum amount of time before they go back to training - hard to police but we all know that we and other lads when out on the pitch not 100%.

Swapping jerseys - gone.

Those are some of the items I can think about however if there is one major lesson that could be taken from this is that people do not obey rules or advice unless there is serious consequences and even then, some idiots still don't. Translate that to the pitch and you see the same, unless the consequences for breaking the rules are tough and enforced nothing changes, stop making excuses, such as it was an accident or he didn't mean it.  I am sure nobody doesn't deliberately wash their hands but they do forget.  Forgetting can have tragic consequences."
This is just not feasible.

Sharing water bottles is something that should be minimised anyway and in most cases teams try and do it at training etc.

The GAA already try to stop large pitch incursions. It's not always possible.

Shaking hands? Banning it? In a contact sport which involves "touch tight" marking. What is the point in that?

Spitting. Obviously spitting at an opponent is abhorrent and will rightly see you hit with a long ban. Stopping someone spitting out water, blood, dirt etc from the mouth is simply unenforceable and may not even be advised in many cases. How is a Physio or Doc supposed to clean a players mouth to assess for injury for example? What if s/he has grass or much in his or her mouth?

Stopping players who are ill from training... Well a good manager and good medical team with will stop players with respiratory or gastrointestinal illness in any event to maximise their players availability and prevent the spread through the squad. But to stop a player playing in an important game because he/she has a sniffle is completely impractical. Especially in elite amateur sport where athletes are often run down and prone to minor infections.

Swapping jerseys- It doesn't happen at club level and the GPA's charter is that county players are allowed keep or swap one jersey per year. Some county boards may allow more. It's a minor risk however


The very reason normal life is not continuing during this pandemic is there are risks associated with our day to day activities, including participating in sport, that are either simply not modifiable or not practical to modify. That is why we have had to grind everything to a halt to try and put the breaks on this thing. In normal times those risks are acceptable, right now they are unacceptable and pose a threat to public health. We don't go back to normal until we can go back to normal. So other than sharing water bottles I don't see any of these measures being practical or necessary when we have this under control. And if they are necessary then we probably shouldn't be playing.

roundball (Tipperary) - Posts: 2514 - 01/04/2020 23:50:10    2275192

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Does anyone know how the Tipp hurlers are doing that came home from Spain? Spain is getting hammered almost as bad as Italy so I was wondering.

Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 2111 - 02/04/2020 19:54:06    2275227

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Replying To Trump2020:  "Does anyone know how the Tipp hurlers are doing that came home from Spain? Spain is getting hammered almost as bad as Italy so I was wondering."
I dont...but they are probably in the same boat as the rest of us. It's a month since they were there so would be well outside the 2 week incubation period for infection.

PoolSturgeon (Galway) - Posts: 1901 - 03/04/2020 10:36:41    2275247

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Australia on shutdown restrictions until at least October. Will be a long time here too, but they don't want to let that be known as would probably cause stress for people.

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2763 - 03/04/2020 12:01:22    2275253

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Replying To FoolsGold:  "Australia on shutdown restrictions until at least October. Will be a long time here too, but they don't want to let that be known as would probably cause stress for people."
Bit over the top at the moment.

It might well come to that but there's a lot that can happen in six months.

How much have we learned in the last month ? The situation now is totally different to what we thought it was at the beginning of March.

lionofludesch (Down) - Posts: 475 - 03/04/2020 12:49:56    2275254

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Replying To PoolSturgeon:  "I dont...but they are probably in the same boat as the rest of us. It's a month since they were there so would be well outside the 2 week incubation period for infection."
Very true for you. And anyway if one or more of them took a bad turn you'd have heard about it by now. That was a fast month.

Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 2111 - 03/04/2020 13:21:56    2275256

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Replying To FoolsGold:  "Australia on shutdown restrictions until at least October. Will be a long time here too, but they don't want to let that be known as would probably cause stress for people."
That makes sense in fairness, if the government came out and said we'll be locked down for 3-6 months people would go nuts.

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 03/04/2020 13:43:38    2275259

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Replying To FoolsGold:  "Australia on shutdown restrictions until at least October. Will be a long time here too, but they don't want to let that be known as would probably cause stress for people."
You sure October is accurate. Haven't seen that anywhere. I haven't heard of any country putting lock downs or even basic restrictions in place so long into the future. Most countries are doing 2-4 week blocks

Mayonman (Galway) - Posts: 1825 - 03/04/2020 13:56:51    2275265

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You'll find in on Twitter I
The Chief Medical officer in Australia annouced it during a Speech
@Sunriseon7

FoolsGold (Cavan) - Posts: 2763 - 03/04/2020 15:29:58    2275270

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It's a bit like a travel back in time to 50s or 60s Ireland. People rarely ventured too far afield. I think we can forget about foreign travel for the rest of 2020. Who know what kind of heap that airline industry will be in after all of this is over? The days of cheap flights could be at an end.

Lockjaw (Donegal) - Posts: 9104 - 03/04/2020 15:32:59    2275271

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Replying To Mayonman:  "You sure October is accurate. Haven't seen that anywhere. I haven't heard of any country putting lock downs or even basic restrictions in place so long into the future. Most countries are doing 2-4 week blocks"
I dont see the world deciding to shut down economies until October. The shutdown would be worse than any Covid 19 and cause many deaths in itself. The decision ,hard decision to go back to work even though theres a virus among us will have to be made soon enough.

bloodyban (Limerick) - Posts: 1710 - 03/04/2020 16:19:37    2275273

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It'll be surprising if there's any ball played in the summer.

2nd wave of this poxy thing needs to be watched like a hawk. We have to do everything possible to lessen the chances of this kicking off again causing future misery both personal and financial.

jimbodub (Dublin) - Posts: 20598 - 03/04/2020 16:33:16    2275275

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My wife is in an area of the public sector that is central to responding to Covid 19. They have plans and altered rosters up to mid June at the minute but it is continually under review.

It is very possible that there will be some level of restrictions until October but I think retailers, pubs, leisure facilities etc will be open long before that, possibly with restrictions on numbers or something.

As many of us have stated, sports, concerts and very large gatherings will be the very last thing to be brought back. It's really not looking good for the GAA season imo

GeniusGerry (Kerry) - Posts: 2105 - 03/04/2020 18:27:47    2275278

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Pointless speculation going on here, have a great weekend and mind yerselves.

suckvalleypaddy (Galway) - Posts: 1667 - 03/04/2020 20:33:05    2275286

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Replying To suckvalleypaddy:  "Pointless speculation going on here, have a great weekend and mind yerselves."
Ha ha ha. True but to lads that are on "lockdown" speculation all you have. Taking a break from watching Ozark season 3 to read such speculation.

Trump2020 (Galway) - Posts: 2111 - 03/04/2020 22:26:55    2275291

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Replying To Trump2020:  "Ha ha ha. True but to lads that are on "lockdown" speculation all you have. Taking a break from watching Ozark season 3 to read such speculation."
I was thinking of giving ozark a look, would you recommend it? Iv just finished breaking bad and looking for something new.

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 03/04/2020 22:58:33    2275296

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