I got a tweet there.
“Why are GAA people so in favour of having people at games? You don’t hear it from anywhere else in the world.”
Why?
I’ll tell you why.
I remember intercepting a pass at Parnell Park during my first start in the Dublin championship a few years ago. I came in from behind a couple of players so the stand wouldn’t have seen me until I snatched at it. The roar still makes me feel 10 feet tall.
The GAA isn’t about winning a little trophy at the end of the year. And I don’t want to be cheesy, but it’s about belonging.
It’s a community building something together and the end goal of all of it is simply to be part of that.
That day was the first time I really felt that in Dublin and I’m talking about intercepting a fucking pass here – imagine what a good player could achieve.
The point isn’t having an audience to show off to, it’s sharing those experiences with everyone who helped and help make them happen. That’s what a GAA club is, a place where everyone plays a part, everyone has a role and everyone wins and loses together – that’s the whole reason for its existence. It’s more than a five-a-side tournament, more than a Sunday league game; all noble, competitive ventures but not part of the everyday fabric of a community like the GAA is in Ireland.
The best photos and some of the sweetest memories are on a muddy field on a crisp autumn day. One man in his shorts, five people huddled around him and the cup. His partner, his mam, his nephew, his coach, the club secretary. Pick and choose the family tie, the underage influence, the committee member – they all tell the same story that there’s a team behind each player lucky enough to kick ball on a Sunday.
Without that team there to share that moment, it’s not the same. It just isn’t. Not for the player and certainly not for all those people so invested in that player and his team mates along the way. It’s all a little less worthwhile.
And, at this rate, there”ll be no-one there to take the bloody photos.
So, here’s where we’re at.
This is okay. This is safe.
And this?
This isn’t okay. This isn’t safe.
It’s safe to play sport. Safe to tackle, sweat, fight, roar, huddle.
It isn’t safe to have 120 or 130 people stand back and watch. It isn’t safe to have that many people spread around a 145m x 88m pitch, however big the stand is or however deep the banks are.
It’s safe for 50 people – all over 70s if you like – to pile inside a church and sit around for mass. It isn’t safe for a 40-year-old to stand alone and watch his son play in his first championship knockout game.
And, I know we said it was safe to play sport there a second ago, but that’s only on game day. Playing sport actually isn’t really recommended that heavily so new restrictions mean only a maximum of 15 people (outdoors) can train together.
Safe to play sport. Not safe to train.
Dr Ronan Glynn said that the “measures recommended were not aimed at stopping sport” and they were explicit when they said sporting competitions can continue as normal. But either Dr Glynn doesn’t realise that there are 15 people per team in Gaelic football and hurling or he really just thinks training is more risky than match day.
The logic, we’re told, isn’t to make every ruling black and white or to pit every activity against the other. Instead, any opportunity to limit social gatherings is a good one to take where possible, but either it’s safe to play or it’s not.
Because, at the minute, GAA players are being told that they cannot train in groups of more than 15. But, come match day, they can warm up in their squad of 25, they can play a game with 31 people on the pitch and the subs can stand on the sideline with the coaches and mentors and that’s fine as long as Covid-19 knows that this is a game and not a training session.
Paul Moynagh, professor of immunology in NUI Maynooth spoke on RTÉ and explained the virus is “significantly less transmissible outdoors than it is indoors” but despite the total lack of any evidence that links the GAA to a significant increase in cases – no less, bystanders on the ditch minding their own business or having anything to do with the spread of coronavirus – sport has been punished again and people looking to watch a bit of ball in fresh air are having their lives shut down once more.
One theory was that the players all fill out a Return to Play questionnaire before every session, clearing them to take part as long as they don’t have the relevant symptoms – not that they have to have symptoms to be carrying. But since March, we’ve all engaged in a social contract whereby if you have the symptoms, you self-isolate, you get tested. If you’re standing around in a crowd thinking you have Covid-19, you’re being a bit of a letdown, aren’t you? Even with it being less transmissible outdoors.
And do you know what? Rather than do the government’s job for them and invent theories for why someone can’t stand outside and watch a game from an overly cautious position, that energy would be better spent asking why the government’s testing and tracing system hasn’t helped to stop these further restrictions five months after everyone engaged to flatten the curve of cases together.
What’s most frustrating, though, is the government’s lack of conviction with so many other decisions. Too often, citizens are being ‘advised’ or ‘asked to’ or told to practice individual discretion instead of actually just telling people what they absolutely can and can’t do. That’s where most of the confusion lies and that’s where most of the liberties are taken.
In one very specific, rather pointless and harmless instance though, they are making a very clear and concise call. In this one case, they’re not allowing anyone to self-police and they’re certainly not recommending or advising on what to do. No, they’re flat out telling people what to do.
Meat factories? Schools? Nah. More serious, more concerning matters.
They’re telling club members and families that they simply cannot and will not compromise. They’re telling parents of underage children, children of senior players that, under absolutely no circumstance, can any of them stand in a 20,000-capacity stadium and watch a match.
Why?
The official reason was that it’s better to have 50 people at a game than 200.
Evidence of fans impacting the spread of coronavirus? Nope.
I mean, it’s better to shut down meat plants, shut down all aspects of life actually, but you don’t do that.
Instead of going after the virus hard where we know it is, measures are being softly put in places where the virus isn’t, for the most part. What that means is it will still continue to spread and the measures bandied out in less affected areas won’t have much of an impact in stopping that.
And what it means is that while people have the opportunity to live their lives again, even in restricted confines, they’re now being told to stay away from their club, their passion and, let’s face it, their lives.
It isn’t safe for you to come down and watch a game anymore. Sorry. Go into the bar there, with you, where it’s safe – they’re showing it on the big screen.
