Give open championship draw a go, says Cooney

Westmeath senior football manager Jack Cooney believes this uniquely challenging year gives the GAA a chance to try something novel with the All-Ireland championships.

With GAA fixtures and training suspended due to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak until at least April 19 – and most likely for longer – there has been some discussion that a straight knockout championship could be on the cards this year.

One option would be to use the provincial championships as the basis for the competition – but many observers have suggested that an ‘open draw’ might be a fairer and indeed more exciting way of doing things.

In this year’s Leinster SFC, Westmeath have been drawn against reigning All-Ireland champions Dublin – a county which hasn’t been beaten in the championship since Donegal famously ambushed them in a 2014 semi-final.

The Connacht championship matches, London v Roscommon and New York v Galway, have already been postponed from their original dates, and there is considerable doubt as to whether the New York fixture will go ahead at all.

Cooney is firmly in the camp that an ‘open draw’ style championship is worth trying given the exceptional circumstances pertaining this year.

“I think it’s an opportunity to try something novel and to trial something for one year,” Cooney told the Westmeath Examiner.

“There are a lot of stadiums with good floodlights and with a tighter timeframe, games could be played under lights and that would bring a different atmosphere.

“It’s a very strange time at the moment and it all depends on when matches can resume, and clubs have to be considered too. There might only be a window of six weeks to run off a championship of some kind.

“Let’s say there is an open draw of 32 teams, the 16 winners could go one way with the losers playing off to get back into contention,” he continued.

In such an ‘open draw’ scenario, Cooney also believes there would be merit in giving Division 3 and 4 teams home advantage.

Westmeath are listed to play two games in their Allianz National Football League Division 2 campaign – a home game against Laois and a trip to Newbridge to face Kildare.

But as inter-county squads haven’t been allowed to train collectively for a number of weeks, Cooney believes counties would need to be given a chance to prepare if these league games are rescheduled.

“You can’t give teams a week’s notice that they have a league game coming up. There has to be an element of preparation time,” he said.

“We were working towards March 29 as the date when training could resume and of course that has been pushed back until at least April 19. It all depends on when the green light comes that games can be played. It might be unlikely that there will be enough time to finish the league and have sufficient time for the championship this year.”

Asked about the challenge of players maintaining their fitness, Cooney said: “We have been in regular contact with the players on the communications platform that we use, giving them conditioning programmes and exercises to do.

“The lads have all responded brilliantly, they have been doing the fitness work 100 per cent and there has been a bit of banter between them which helps to keep spirits up. Obviously the restrictions have got even stricter so people have had to be creative about getting their exercise in and so on.

As for players who were out with long term injuries, such as Ger Egan, Cooney said they have been working on rehab programmes, adding that “they are all making progress”.

“There will be some appetite for GAA games and indeed sport in general when matches do get going again. I suppose we often take things for granted and I know all the players will be looking forward to meeting up as a collective when we are allowed to do so,” Cooney added.