Derrygonnelly Harps chairman Donal Corrigan acknowledges that while it is good to have a return to GAA action for clubs, there is a lot of work needed to be put in place to ensure that protocols are followed for it to return safely.
The GAA announced on Friday its Safe Return Roadmap with club football first on the agenda with a return to games scheduled for the weekend of July 31. GAA pitches will reopen on June 29 with firstly non contact small group training of no more than 10 players and two coaches before full training resumes on July 20.
“Like a lot of our clubs we were a bit surprised by the announcement by Croke Park. We felt that there maybe wasn’t going to be any club football until the very end of the winter time.
“It is good that club football is coming back and it is good that people are going to get football. Getting adults and kids back into that environment is important but you are just wondering that if this risk is still out there are we managing this risk within our club environment. Part of me wonders would it have been better to have left it until there was less of a risk,” said Corrigan.
And there will be a big onus on clubs to have everything in place. 
It is stated in the document that each team within a club should have a Covid Supervisor who is present at each training session or game. All players and support staff must have their temperature checked prior to each training session or game and recorded on a risk assessment health questionnaire and it will be the responsibility of the Covid Supervisor to collate and distribute these. In the case of underage players, the questionnaire should be signed by a parent or guardian. The Covid Supervisor will also be required to maintain records of attendees in the event that contact tracing is required while they must also ensure that all equipment is sanitised before use by the next team.
Clubs will also be expected to have appropriate signage put up around the ground and supply hand gel dispensers.
“When you read into all the stuff that the clubs are going to have to put in place, it is going to mean a fair bit of organising from simple things like putting up signage to having Covid Supervisors at every training session and game with temperatures having to be taken and a risk assessment sheet filled out before every training session. People are going to have to be trained up in that, we have people in the club who have that experience but you are not going to have those involved with every teams.
“Sanitising is going to have to be a norm and things like equipment is going to have to be sanitised after every training session.
“There is going to have to be meetings within the club and then meetings with our coaches and team management to get them up to speed and we will have to take advice from people who do know how to handle these situations. And this has to be done in a quick time frame,” added Corrigan.
With the club season to be played off in an 11 week window this is also going to give clubs the problem of solving things like training schedules.
“We like any other club have maybe ten teams and none of those have got football this year but all have to get football in this window so to organise a training schedule for those teams will be a big ask,” he added.