Hurling & Camogie

It's hard to find a reason for the GAA to say no to six counties opening up first: Colly Murphy

Colly Murphy believes it would be a “massive own goal” if the GAA insisted on moving on a 32-county basis following Stormont’s announcement
Colly Murphy believes it would be a “massive own goal” if the GAA insisted on moving on a 32-county basis following Stormont’s announcement Colly Murphy believes it would be a “massive own goal” if the GAA insisted on moving on a 32-county basis following Stormont’s announcement

O’DONOVAN Rossa hurling manager Colly Murphy believes it would be a “massive own goal” if the GAA insisted on moving on a 32-county basis following Stormont’s announcement that will allow outdoor sports to resume on April 12.

The Northern Ireland Executive has given the go-ahead for groups of 15 to train together next month with mitigations in place.

It will almost certainly mean the six counties will restart before the 26 counties due to the more favourable conditions in relation to COVID cases and vaccination programmes in the north.

While the Ulster Council acknowledged the Executive’s decision to relax collective training on April 12, the provincial body said Croke Park still had ultimate authority over its units on when they return to play.

Given that children and young people have been banned from playing outdoor sport in a team environment for six straight months, the mental wellbeing of its most vulnerable members is overwhelming.

It is understood Central Council and Coiste Bainistí are meeting this weekend and the NI Executive’s recent announcement is sure to be discussed.

However, Murphy said it’s a no-brainer to allow clubs in the six counties to resume training.

“If I’d a vote on it, I’d be opening up and letting the kids play,” said the Rossa manager and former Antrim hurler.

“We’ve all been in this pandemic since last year, and now this opportunity has arisen, for the GAA to deny children a return to play and experience some normality up here would, in my opinion, be a massive own goal.”

Murphy’s job is a careers adviser to Year 12 students in various schools and has had a clear view of just how damaging an impact the pandemic is having on the mental well-being of young people.

“Part of my job is interviewing kids every day and I’d say 95 percent of them can’t wait to get back to school,” he said.

“It’s not for learning; it’s to go and see their friends, to get out of the house, to put on clothes, it’s all to do with mental health.

“Can you imagine when soccer goes back, netball goes back, basketball, all these sports go back and the GAA doesn’t? Are we going to lose kids?”

Earlier this week, Tyrone county chairman Mickey Kerr insisted the Association must move as one body rather than allowing the northern region to return first.

Down chairman Jack Devaney believed it would be prudent to open up club activity in the six counties in the interests of children returning to games but was firmly against the notion of inter-county teams in the north starting before the south.

Even before the south paused the AstraZeneca vaccine as a precaution at the beginning of this week, its vaccination programme was painfully slow compared to the phenomenal roll-out success in the north.

It means the two jurisdictions on the island are poles apart in terms of being able to lift restrictions which complicates the picture of the GAA opening up on a 32-county basis.

In the current climate Murphy said he wasn’t a fan of the 32-county and six-county cards being played and would much prefer if the R rate was examined on a county by county basis and cited the Irish government shutting down Kildare, Offaly and Laois last year because of high Covid rates.

“If there’s an outbreak in Loughgiel should we close Belfast? How far do we want to drill down? It can’t be simply six counties and 26 counties. It could be Louth, Armagh and Down,” argued Murphy, who enters his fourth year with the Rossa hurlers in 2021.

“If you’re allowed to go back, we should be going back. The GAA should be looking at this as a positive, not a disruptive thing. If we can get six of our counties back, they should be saying let them at it, get the kids back.

“I think they need to look at where the R rate is at, how the vaccination programme is going. We'd be crazy to say no."