County board chairman Joe Kennedy says he’s ‘baffled’ that inter-county games have lost their ‘Elite’ status.
It was announced this week that inter-county activity will not resume until Easter weekend at the earliest.
In 2020, during level 5 restrictions, inter-county games could go ahead, but that is no longer the case.
Speaking to Tipp FM, Joe Kennedy believes inter-county games can go ahead safely once numbers go down further:
“From what I can gather, I don’t think there was any Covid-19 cases that came out of the inter-county activity so it’s probably a bit baffling really to be honest with you.
“It all depends on the numbers that have the virus in the community, it depends on the rollout of the vaccine. If the numbers came down and the rollout of the vaccine was successful, I would think the inter-county game could be run in a similar fashion to last year very safely.”
Despite the recent news regarding guidelines, Kennedy is confident this year’s National Leagues will still go ahead.
As inter-county competition is no longer permitted under level 5 restrictions, the future of the league is in doubt.
With no GAA activity until Easter weekend at the earliest, the 2021 fixture calendar is under pressure.
However, Kennedy believes some form of a league will go ahead:
“I’d imagine some form of a league will go ahead because if you talk to the managers, albeit in hurling or football, they’re looking for some form of games, they’re not going to go into the championship cold.
“If there’s no league, counties are going to be looking for challenge games, so if there’s some form of league, albeit a condensed one or whatever, it’d give counties meaningful games and give them a chance to get back up and find their feet and try out new players and systems.
“I’d say there’d certainly be an appetite among managers and players for some sort of a league to go ahead.”
