Football

Kicking Out: Tyrone shouldn't have been granted extra week

Tyrone have leaned heavily on the Graduated Return To Play Protocol in their successful bid to delay the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry - but their interpretation of it gives them a very weak case at best. Picture by Philip Walsh
Tyrone have leaned heavily on the Graduated Return To Play Protocol in their successful bid to delay the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry - but their interpretation of it gives them a very weak case at best. Picture by Philip Walsh Tyrone have leaned heavily on the Graduated Return To Play Protocol in their successful bid to delay the All-Ireland semi-final against Kerry - but their interpretation of it gives them a very weak case at best. Picture by Philip Walsh

IN 2004, Ashley Revell sold everything he owned, took the $135,000 proceeds to a casino in Las Vegas and put the whole thing on red.

Those 20 seconds before the ball dropped into number seven must have felt like the 24 hours Tyrone endured after making their move on Saturday.

This was an all-or-nothing gamble, designed to force the GAA’s hand and get what they wanted.

The GAA had been absolutely right when they initially made the move to push All-Ireland semi-final back by a week to this Saturday, August 21.

It was the fair and right decision.

Tyrone would have had all but a small handful of players, believed to be around five, out of isolation by then but it wouldn’t have been particularly fair to ask them to play.

Moving it away from that August 21 date and pushing it back to August 28 was the result of Tyrone going all-in.

It was an enormous call when they released a statement early on Saturday afternoon indicating that they would not be fielding for the game if it remained on August 21.

The GAA were left scrambling. Tyrone had put their marker down with no room for maneouvre.

Either the game moves, or we don’t play it.

2020 was the worst financial year in the GAA’s history. They are desperately in need of the income from these games to tide the thing over for a few years.

Give or take, they’re looking at around €1m of income from Tyrone v Kerry. It is money they simply could not afford to do without.

Yet the GAA were still prepared to throw Tyrone out only for the agreement of Kerry and Mayo to push the game back, along with the All-Ireland final, which moves deeper into September.

It was still a lot of faith to place in your opponents. Neither Kerry nor Mayo would want to win an All-Ireland in the boardroom but they would still have had each other to play and could easily have dug their heels in.

Tyrone got their way.

They shouldn’t have.

I get it. There is a player welfare issue.

It is still a relatively short timeframe for anyone who is properly feeling the effects of contracting Covid-19.

But consider this.

Tyrone leaned hard on the ‘Graduated Return to Play Protocol’ agreed the Institute of Sport across Ireland and Britain.

They have made the argument that it recommends a 17-day gap from the end of the isolation period until the resumption of full training.

Their reading of it was that it is 10 days of isolation, 10 days of rest and then seven days of graduated return to training – a total of 27 days.

That’s not what it actually says though.

It is just about grey enough to allow Tyrone to argue a case, but it's a very weak one.

Most people would interpret the document as saying the 10 days of isolation and rest were one and the same.

The Irish News has confirmed with a medical professional involved in the creation of the protocol that the it was very much the intention that they be considered the same, rather than Tyrone's interpretation.

After all, what else is there to do in isolation only rest?

The English Institute of Sport’s website clearly states that the earliest full training could be resumed is “17 days from the initial onset of symptoms”.

That means 17 days in total, not 27.

And, indeed, the guidance has since been updated – although not yet published – to reduce the entire Return To Play period to just 10 days for those suffering minor cold-like symptoms.

By the time Tyrone play Kerry, they will have had 28 days since their last game against Tyrone, and 22 days since this column became aware of a wider outbreak than the one that had gripped them before the Ulster final.

On RTÉ’s live programme on Saturday, Tomás Ó Sé said that “a lot of me is angry” about how Tyrone did not “box off” the threat of Covid.

When asked over the weekend if the outbreak was related to any post-match celebrations from the Ulster final, Feargal Logan said it was “a community-based issue.”

“We have guys on our team who are not given to even going out, they are locked into their football, and they are down with this,” he told The Irish Examiner.

“We at all times have endeavoured to stay away and avoid anything to do with this virus as a group, in our work and socially with the players.

“But regrettably, the best experts in the world have tried to batten down this virus, get to the sources, get to their transmission and we find ourselves in this position, howsoever it arose,” said the joint Tyrone boss.

He and Brian Dooher were handed a 2-7 split but never blinked.

They have played their hand brilliantly.

Tyrone could have fielded a team for the All-Ireland semi-final this Saturday.

There’s a big difference in fielding a team and fielding the team you want to field.

Some Tyrone players have unquestionably had severe symptoms. Logan has said that one player was so severely compromised that he was hospitalised.

If that player takes the field on August 28, it will be a small miracle.

Tyrone have made their case, backed by the GPA, on the grounds of player welfare.

There absolutely is a player welfare issue.

If a player is suffering the after-effects of Covid-19 symptoms, there’s no way they should have been asked to play in an All-Ireland semi-final this Saturday.

But that’s on Tyrone, not the GAA.

Player welfare issues happen all the time. Colds, flus, sicknesses. Padraig O’Hora was said to have broken two ribs in the Connacht final but played against Dublin.

Dermot McNicholl’s hamstring was in bits when he played for Derry against Meath in an All-Ireland semi-final in 1987.

Teams all over the country do it all the time, with potentially serious consequences.

Manys a man has cut the cast off an arm or played with broken digits or feeling some kind of ailment.

That’s a decision for the player, the management and the medical personnel. If they’re willing to balance the risk against the reward then that’s a decision for grown men to make.

There are two other major factors to consider in this. One is the knock-on effect on club players in Tyrone, who will have been idle for five weeks by the time their next match comes around, and possibly seven if Tyrone were to beat Kerry.

The bigger issue again is the precedent it sets. Is the All-Ireland final a fair fight if there are cases on either side? How many actually need to be affected in order for a game to be pushed back? Two? Nine? Fifteen?

If one of the favourites for a club championship gets a couple of big men struck down, wait and see the calls of “we can’t field with Covid, we need 17 days”.

Tyrone v Kerry should have gone ahead this Saturday.

Those that are fit to play, play.

Those that aren’t fit to play, don’t play.

That’s life. That’s sport.