BENNY Coulter believes the GAA jumped too soon on shutting down club fixtures around the country and has cautioned against a ‘circuit-breaker’ for juvenile football.
The former Down star coaches the Mayobridge U11s and doesn’t see any reason why the Association should call a halt to grassroots football.
Some GAA units have gone further than merely calling off club games and stopped all club activity that affects kids’ games and training.
On Sunday evening, the south’s National Public Health Emergency Team [NEPHT] insisted the Irish Government move from Level Two to Level Five (a complete lockdown). The following day the GAA issued a statement suspending all club games.
However, on Monday evening, the coalition government resisted NEPHT’s advice and opted to move to the less severe Level Three status.
“The Public Health came out with the statement [of going to Level Five] and the GAA jumped too soon,” said Coulter.
“What they should have done was to say play games behind closed doors and everybody would have been happy with that. They should have waited to eight o’clock that night and banned all supporters from games.
Coulter added: “If they do stop grassroots games, they’re taking the easy option. Grassroots football about the town here is so important to so many people.
“I played five-a-side last Friday night and there were loads of kids coming off the pitch and it was great to see. But that could stop now.”
The Mayobridge U11s have pencilled in football blitzes over a six-week period finishing up at the end of November. After the GAA’s statement, the parents WhatsApp group was full of enquiries about whether the team would continue to meet.
“We actually trained after the GAA came out with their statement on Monday. We’d like to continue training. We’ve been going from the end of June to now and nothing has come off it. We sanitise at the gates…
“The problem is house parties – not kids playing football.
“What we’ve noticed, before lockdown you’d have had a few kids missing training but since then the numbers we’ve got at our sessions have been great, and the parents want them out playing.
“Even the other night, one of the parents put into the group chat: ‘What’s the story with training, is it going ahead?’ And one of the other coaches replied: ‘It’s going ahead.’
“We’d 32 kids that night at training. Parents were writing in, saying: ‘That’s brilliant’; ‘They need to be active’… Even I found it with my lad during lockdown, he was sitting in the house playing PlayStation. It’s not right. The GAA need to think this through.”
While there are bigger debates being had within the GAA and how it tip-toes around Covid19 to get its League and Championship played, Coulter feels sustaining the games for all ages in the GAA should be the objective.
“We have planned from October 26 right through to the end of November playing wee blitzes every Friday night under the lights. And then we’ll give the kids a break until the New Year. But that could all bit hit on the head. We just hope the GAA doesn’t throw a curve ball on that.”
