CLONTIBRET manager John McEntee has questioned whether the GAA is playing club championships “for the sake of it” and says he is concerned the season will not be finished.
An All-Ireland winner with Armagh and Crossmaglen, McEntee’s day job is as an assistant director at the Southern Health and Social Care Trust (SHSCT).
McEntee says the recent spate of covid-19 outbreaks around the north – which saw Dundrum last night become the latest club to temporarily suspend activity - has left him on edge.
“In my work in the health service, I’m very nervous about the Covid thing. Everything we do, we have Covid in the back of our heads.
“We [Clontibret] are worried about how we train. I’ve great guys in this club and I’d be very worried if somebody got Covid.
“It stresses me out every night. I’m anxious about the thing.
“To be honest with you, I’m glad to be back playing football but under these conditions, I’d rather we weren’t.
“We’re sitting every week and boys are going to house parties or they’re visiting people or whatever, and they’re exposed to the virus.
“You don’t know when they’re going to bring it in around the changing rooms, and every night you’re worried whether somebody has it or doesn’t have it.
“You’re hearing different clubs in Down, different clubs in Armagh, Derry, all over the place. And you’re thinking there by the grace of God go us all.”
He watched his Clontibret side recover from a poor start to lead Ballybay late on yesterday in their Monaghan SFC opener, only to be pegged back by two late scores in a 1-9 apiece draw.
Irish government restrictions meant the two clubs had just 110 tickets for spectators to split between them, giving Pearse Park an eerily empty feel for a game between the county’s reigning league and championship winners.
“It’s not championship fervour,” said the O’Neills boss.
“Very few supporters about it, and club football’s all about supporters.
“I can see people falling out with their club because there’s only 50 tickets to go around 500 members.
“I’ve heard of games behind closed doors and 500 people turning up. At official events, people won’t turn up because they know they won’t be allowed in.
“It’s not right. It’s not what club football is about.
“Are we playing the championship for the sake of it? What good is that?”
While McEntee is uncomfortable with the idea of football as it stands, he believes clubs should be able to do a risk assessment and determine their own safe capacity for games.
“If they’re going to open it up, there should be more here. I think they should allow clubs to risk assess on what they can safely accommodate, allowing for social distancing.
“They’re allowed to fill the pubs and restaurants with one-metre distancing. There’s a fine ground here could safely hold 500 people no problem, yet 200 were allowed in.
“In Clontibret, they’ve spent a lot of money and put in a lot of volunteer time getting a facility ready. We’ve home matches coming. On any given day, it could hold 2,000 people. Why couldn’t 500 be allowed in there?”
Asked if he envisaged the club championships being finished in the current circumstances, McEntee said: “I don’t know. If they keep letting people fly into the country and people keep partying…
“There’s a new regulation there in Monaghan that if a team has Covid and can’t play, the fixtures can be rescheduled. Conceivably, there could be one or two matches rescheduled, and that could delay the championship.
“If it’s not played by the time the inter-county scene starts up, is it going to be played at all?
“There are all sorts of anomalies at the minute, you don’t know what way it’s going to play out.”
