THE final rounds of the National Football League and the outstanding National Hurling League fixtures could be played in August with an old-school, straight knockout, Championship beginning immediately afterwards.
The Irish News has learned that discussions have taken place timetabling a resumption of the inter-county game along the lines of the ‘normalisation’ framework outlined by Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on Friday night.
The Taoiseach announced a five-step plan which is dependent on Ireland being able to make each step without going backwards in terms of an escalation, or second wave, of Covid-19 infection.
If step one is then followed by step two, then sporting activity could return in step three around July. That being the case, it is understood that club action will return first, allowing county players the opportunity to get game-time which would help to prepare them for the resumption of inter-county action in August.
If all goes to plan, the outstanding National League fixtures would be completed followed by an All-Ireland Championship in the traditional knockout format in which the four provincial champions would meet at the All-Ireland semi-final stage with the winners going on to the Sam Maguire and Liam MacCarthy Cup deciders.
With three rounds of Division Four fixtures outstanding, Antrim are still in the shake-up for promotion and all of their Ulster neighbours also have plenty to play for. Down and Derry are challenging for promotion in Division Three, while in the second tier Armagh are on the verge of promotion, Cavan are in contention and Fermanagh are battling relegation. In the top flight table, Tyrone are third and Monaghan and Donegal are both sitting on five points.
“If the county guys are allowed to play out the Leagues it would give them games before they go into an All-Ireland one-off knockout,” said Antrim manager Lenny Harbinson.
“Finishing the Leagues this year will feed into next year’s Leagues and shape what a two-tier Championship could look like in 2021, so I can understand the logic.”
If they do go ahead, club and inter-county games are almost certain to be played in front of small crowds or behind closed doors altogether. The TV audiences for live matches would be huge.
“Of course, everybody would want to play in front of crowds,” said Harbinson.
“But these are really unique times and I think you have to adapt. If somebody was saying: ‘In six weeks’ time you’ll have Tyrone against Derry in the Ulster Championship, a knockout game live on TV, there would be a lot of people tuning in to watch it.
“They would relish the idea of watching a game of such magnitude. I think you have to adapt and be reasonable in the circumstances and having something is better than having absolutely nothing.”
Should the inter-game return on a knockout basis in the Championship, traditional underdogs like Antrim will feel that, on their day, anything is possible.
“Some of our players like Declan Lynch, Conor Murray and Niall Delargy were playing through the pain barrier with injuries in the League and this has given them the opportunity to clear them up and that would be the case in a lot of counties,” said Harbinson.
“This closed season which has been enforced, and rightly so, might be a bit of a leveller. You don’t know what the potential knock-on effect could be. I would imagine that a few teams could be able to cause some surprises maybe.”
