Brian Coyle's 2020 could not be panning out more differently from 2019. Twelve months ago he was planning St Paul's journey to Ulster club success and he had their roadmap laid out for this year as they returned to the senior club stage.
But for the last 10 or so weeks, Coyle has been confined to home, one of the many who have been shielding because of underlying health conditions and just like anyone involved in any sport at all, he is eagerly awaiting the opportunity to get back at it.
"I have been insulating for the last 10 weeks because I have a heart condition. My daughter and grandson have moved out but we have been well looked after.
I can go out and about now a bit that we have permission, so I was out during the week doing a bit of gardening," said Coyle.
Coyle has spent over 50 years of his life coaching and even in lockdown he is still doing his bit, making sure the club's underage girls are practising on a weekly basis as well as keeping tabs on the seniors.
"I still keep in touch with the girls, keep an eye on what is going on and I know who is and who isn't doing what they are meant to be doing.
"We know games will take place, that we will get back to football, and after Friday's news there is more of a plan and dates we can work towards."
"I am taking the Under 8 kids, and every week we set them challenges, telling the parents what we want them to do and getting them to send in videos and we have wee prizes so that it keeps them interested. The parents are fantastic and it's a win-win and the kids love it. It gives me a lift too."
Coyle admits last year's All-Ireland intermediate club final defeat to Offaly side Naomh Ciaran still galls him. The Shaw's Road outfit were within minutes from the All-Ireland title only for their opponents to come from five points to win by two and end St Paul's dreams.
"It is taking me a long time to get over losing the All-Ireland club final last year. I don't think I ever will get over it. I still look back at it, and watch the video over again and it is soul destroying. The loss of Saoirse Tennyson was massive, a big loss.
"I suppose the only good thing about this virus is that three of our long-term injuries will be back, so the big plus is that we will almost have a full panel by the time we hopefully get back playing."
Coyle has done so much for the GAA not just in his beloved club but for Antrim as well over the decades. He started out coaching boys football and hurling, but when the late Jim Nelson took over the hurling, Coyle concentrated on the football.
He managed Antrim minors to an All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry in 1982, beating Down in the Ulster final, and took another group of players to the provincial finals in 1998 and 1999, losing both to Mickey Harte's Tyrone teams.
He was the man who started the prestigious boys Ulster Minor Club Championship, hosted by St Paul's, in 1982 and nine years ago he started up an equivalent for girls football, which has gone from strength to strength since.
For the past 15 or so years he has dedicated himself to ladies football in St Paul's and Antrim, taking the county to 2012 All-Ireland junior championship glory. He would spend four days a week coaching after schools girls football and from his time coaching in St Ciaran's Poleglass he spotted the talents of the McGuinness family Kirsty, Caitlin and Orleigh, the Dahunis – Chloe, Lara and Abbey, Saoirse Tennyson and Nicole Kelly among others.
He took them to St Paul's where he has built up ladies football in the club since the first team was put together in 2003. Ladies football in Antrim had been about since 1995 but up until St Gall's formation in 2001 there was no presence in the city and a phone call one night from a good friend, Eddie McKeever from Moneyglass, changed all that.
"Donna my daughter was football mad and heard this and we had a few girls playing on the boys teams and we got a team together and that was it.
"In 2003 we lost in the championship to Glenavy and since then we haven't lost a championship match in Antrim since then and some years we won the junior and senior titles."
It hasn't always been plain sailing and Coyle has had to go back to the drawing board on a number of occasion but that is where having a strong underage set up is crucial.
"I have had to rebuild the team four or five times, girls come and go for different reasons, maybe they start a family, or want to concentrate on another sport and that is absolutely fine.
"We always have enough young girls coming through and we put a lot of emphasis on our underage because that is something I like to do, give those young girls a chance and blood them and to a certain extend ladies football rules protect them so that you can give young 15 or 16 year old girls the chance to play senior club football."
Life is slowly returning to some kind of 'new norm' but the goalposts have not changed on Coyle's 2020 vision for St Paul's. Undeterred by the heartache of losing last year's All-Ireland final, he is determined that they make their mark in senior football.
"We had just set out our stall for this year when everyday suddenly stopped. We are back in senior championship in Ulster and our target was Clann Eireann, or whoever was to come out of Armagh, to win that and then get a home game against Donaghmoyne, which we have never had. We really wanted to test ourselves against them.
"We had done a fitness test in Jordanstown, got the results, set out a plan, did our pre-season at the Mary Peters track and our next steps were to re-test the fitness levels when Covid kicked in.
We adjusted things a bit, and our strength and conditioning coach Jordan gave the girls a training programme to follow, and now that restrictions are beginning to ease and there is a roadmap for training we hopefully will be able to start a bit of ball work soon.
"Antrim Ladies county board have plans in place for how they will run off the league and the championship. The plan is there and it is just about getting dates, all going well."
