ONE of the leading counties being forced to withdraw from the Championship over a Covid outbreak would leave “an asterisk” beside the winners, believes Kerry boss Peter Keane.
While reports yesterday suggested that the All-Irelands will happen even if Ireland moves into a complete lockdown, the chance of localised lockdowns and outbreaks within playing squads will remain a threat to the sport.
And with infection rates high in counties like Dublin and Donegal, Keane concedes that the entire premise is “hanging by a thread”.
“It’s always in the back of your mind. You get a phone-call during the day and it could be any player ringing me and the first thought is, ‘’Oh shit, have we a problem here?’
“We’re on tenterhooks, we’re hanging here by a thread I think anyway. I’m not talking about Kerry, I’m talking about every team hanging by a thread.
“There are obviously stories out there about teams who have problems. Problems is the wrong word because I think it’s just a fact of life. It’s not a bad reflection on any team, it’s society, we’re all mixing.
“We can’t say we’re in a bubble because I’m working in SuperValu, David was working during the summer, all the players are working or in college. They have families, their parents are working. We’re all trying to mind ourselves and our communities.
“Look, it’s very possible that a team could go down on a Thursday or a Friday. I know there has been some talk about fast testing but I have seen no evidence of fast testing. They’re talking about it coming.
“Demean [the All-Ireland] is a very strong word but it probably would have an asterisk beside it alright.”
Having missed last year’s campaign, and been missed at the heart of Kerry’s defence, Peter Crowley is fit again after the break gave him an opportunity to finish his rehab from a torn cruciate knee ligament.
David Moran has also eased himself back into Championship mode and both could play a part in Inniskeen next Saturday, where the Kingdom resume their year against a Monaghan side that had been catching the eye pre-lockdown.
With a bare minimum of four hours’ driving each way facing them, before you start to worry about eating, Keane admits the logistics of the resumption are causing him headaches.
“If we’re travelling we’ll probably be travelling [Friday], I’m not sure. The game is at 2 o’clock in Monaghan. We’re looking at a situation where it’s probably too far to travel on the day albeit it’s something I would like to do with the environment that we’re in.
“Should we travel in a bus? We’re travelling to training individually so does it make any sense if we’re putting everybody in a bus together? I don’t know.
“I think we’ll go Friday, I think we’ll travel individually. Even getting a hotel now…
“I thought there was an awful lot of logic in neutralising the venues. I thought they might do that yesterday.
“I’m speaking of both sides as we have to travel to Monaghan and Donegal have to travel to Tralee the following weekend and that’s a hell of a long journey as well. You have a lot of hotels closing as well. There’s definitely a lot of wait and see.
“We will be there and we will be giving it our best shot but I’m not sure whether to go up by bus because if you put 26 players into a bus does it make any sense telling them to travel individually to training?"
