‘It’s good that the club game is getting publicity’

Whoever lifts the Paddy Flanagan or Westmeath Examiner Cups this year, the 2020 season will live long in the memory of local Gaels.

For the first time in the GAA’s history, club games at all levels are being played behind closed doors in a bid to suppress the spread of the coronavirus. The decision taken by the authorities last month has been criticised by some GAA fans as being overly stringent, particularly when the attendances at most club matches make social distancing very easy.

Tyrrellspass and Westmeath stalwart Ger Egan says that for him the absence of a crowd hasn’t made too much of a difference; he’s been focused on returning to full fitness and ensuring that his club make it to the latter stages of the championship.

He believes that banning spectators from games is felt a lot more by the fans than the players.

“It doesn’t really bother me to be honest. It’s an old cliché, you nearly forget everything around you when you are playing. Obviously the crowd can help when you are getting on top and gaining a bit of momentum

“I know my father goes to all my games and he is missing it big time. For a lot of people it is their weekend ritual to go and watch their family or friends play.

“From a players’ point of view I don’t know if it has that much of an effect, but for family members, I think that it does.”

Ger tore his cruciate ligament in Westmeath’s Qualifier defeat to Clare in Cusack Park last June and was just getting back to training with team-mates after a long winter of rehab when all sporting activity drew to a halt in mid-March.

While the three-month break from organised training and matches gave him more time to recover, after so long on the sidelines he was itching to get back. “It [the break] was very good in way and awful in another way. In March I was just about getting back on the pitch and doing match related scenarios.

“You can do everything you want to get fit but nothing compares to getting out and the pitch and playing.”

Tyrrellspass only won one game in last year’s championship and this time around have surprised many by making it through to the semi-finals, where they will face Athlone in Cusack Park this Sunday afternoon.

Although by his own admission, he is still finding his way back to full fitness, Egan put in a player of the match performance in the close fought quarter-final victory over Killucan, scoring 0-9 of the team’s 0-11 point tally.

One positive that has come out of the Covid 19 crisis, Ger believes, is that there has been a renewed appreciation of the club game. He would like to see the split club and county seasons remain in place when to the world returns to something resembling normality and it’s something which Croke Park is exploring.

“The split season could be the way forward. I’d say on average I play about seven club games a year, which is not good enough in one sense, but you can’t burn the candle at both ends with club and county. Another side of it is that the people are saying how much they are enjoying the club championship.”

The inter-county championship is still scheduled to go ahead in the autumn; however, with Covid-19 numbers going in the wrong direction, Ger says that it’s hard to know if it will be given the green light by the authorities.

For now though, his energies and thoughts are focused on Sunday and overcoming Athlone, and securing a place in the final for Tyrrellspass. After playing second to fiddle to the inter-county game for so long, Ger says that it is nice that the focus is on clubs, which have contributed so much to their communities throughout the Covid-19 crisis.

“Clubs are the roots of the GAA and to be honest I am delighted to be back in the frame after 12 months waiting to get on the pitch. It’s good that the club game is getting so much publicity and all the games are being streamed.

“One of the only negatives is that spectators are banned but this is a surreal time so you can’t say too much about it either.”