Egan: ‘I can’t see inter-county football happening this year’
With Westmeath having contested just five Leinster senior football championship finals since the GAA’s foundation, Ger Egan will always hold a special place in the Lake County annals having skippered the county he has served with great distinction in the last two such deciders (2015 and 2016).
There is still a lot of football left in the Tyrrellspass maestro, but when exactly his injury-ravaged career can resume is anybody’s guess at this juncture. Covid-19 ended all Gaelic games in early March and “the uncertainty” and “grey areas” surrounding even a mini-resumption of activities continues to frustrate, not just hugely committed inter-county players like Egan, but run-of-the-mill club players.
On Sunday evening, Egan spoke to the Westmeath Examiner, initially giving an update on his horrendous cruciate injury suffered in the galling one-point third round Qualifier loss to Clare last summer in TEG Cusack Park.
“I had been carrying a bit of a hip injury for a few months leading up that game and it was innocuous the way it happened. I’m training away, and training very hard to be honest,” he stated.
“The whole Covid-19 thing came at a bad time for me in the sense that I was just getting back into training and doing match-related stuff. I’m cycling a lot, trying to put as much force as possible on the leg without hurting it, and I got some equipment out of the Tyrrellspass gym which I was lucky to get. I’m doing everything I can, but I’d be nowhere near playing a match.”
Of course, the lockdown in GAA activities is also a huge frustration for team managers. Naturally, Jack Cooney (Westmeath) and Emmet McDonnell (Tyrrellspass) have been in regular touch with their players, the inter-county men working off an app called ‘Slack’.
“There is no pressure on lads, as sport is only a hobby at the end of the day,” Egan emphasises. “Yes, it’s important, but you can’t be pushed into playing before it is safe, just for entertainment purposes. The managers want to keep lads motivated, but we don’t even know if there’s going to be a game this year.
“Jack told us to take a break for a while because we will have plenty of time to freshen up when we get a green light about games.”
So when does Egan expect to see such a ‘green light’? “I don’t think that anyone has the answer to that. Realistically, I can’t see Gaelic games going ahead this year,” he says. “How are lads going to play a game and then go home to their families, and head off to work?
“If you take the likes of (Dr) Jack McCaffrey (the outstanding Dublin wing back) as an example, how can he train on a Friday night and go into a hospital the following morning? There are just too many grey areas. The uncertainty is hard to take.”
Indeed, Egan (who has played for his county as a back, midfielder and forward) is delighted that his day job as a maintenance engineer in Bethany House in Tyrrellspass has gone on as normal.
“I’m very lucky in that regard, I have a routine, and thank God that there have been no cases of the virus there,” he opines.
Understandably, a decade wearing the maroon and white colours has forged many friendships for Egan. “However, at the moment, everyone just has to keep to their own community. I think I’ve been kicked off every pitch within ten kilometres of my house! The school in Rahugh is near me and I can get a bit of work done there,” he adds.
While the challenge of playing the current all-conquering Dublin team is a mouth-watering prospect for all aspiring counties, realistically knocking Dessie Farrell’s troops out of Leinster would have been a very tall order (that quarter-final game had been scheduled for Saturday, May 23).
So, should a decision be made not to resume inter-county activity until 2021, what would Egan envisage as the optimum arrangement, given that most of the National League round robin fixtures had been fulfilled prior to lockdown?
“It just has to be a fresh start, but I know different counties in various divisions of the league will have different opinions on that depending on where they stood when games came to an end. New draws for the championship should be made also,” Egan responded.
In conclusion, Egan gives his own gut feeling on the situation, as follows: “I don’t think that anyone has the answer but, please God, a bit of club will go ahead. But I can’t see inter-county happening this year. It will probably have to be put aside.
“It would be great if a few games could take place such as St Joseph’s, Rochfortbridge playing their Leinster final. For the rest of us, you can’t throw games on top of lads straight away or there are going to be injuries.
“These are mad times, but we just have to deal with it all.”
— Gerry Buckley