Damien O'Hagan hopes that by the time the big one comes around for Coalisland Fianna, Ulster GAA chiefs will have relaxed the restrictions on spectators attending club games still further.
The former Tyrone All Star goes head to head with former Armagh ace Stevie Mc'Donnell at Edendork on August 13 - when Coalisland face local rivals Clonoe Harriers in the first round of the county championship.
"For a big league game you might get 400 as your max, but for a game like that in the championship, you could get three or four thousand. That would be the big one," said O'Hagan.
"But I expect that if the Covid-19 results keep going the way they're going, we can get the R rating down to nil in Ireland, and I'd expect that restrictions would be lessened again."
Having been forced to play behind closed doors since the resumption, GAA clubs in the Six Counties received some welcome news on Thursday night.
The NI Executive determined that organisers can decide on the number of spectators that can be admitted to outdoor competitive games within its jurisdiction.
Following consultation with Croke Park, Ulster GAA bosses have put that figure at up to 400, depending on a club venue meeting the correct criteria.
Grounds that have perimeter fencing with viewing access on all four sides can have no more than 400 people present at a game, and that number includes essential personnel.
But in all other grounds the number has been set at a maximum of 250, and even lower again in grounds with no perimeter fencing, for example.
The figure remains at 200 in the Republic of Ireland, despite a plea by GAA president John Horan last week for the Irish government to allow 500 people to attend club games.
"I think it's great news for supporters," said O'Hagan. "I think there was a lot of hassle for gate men, who had to keep people out for games.
"This is the right way to do it, it's a better way to handle the situation as long as people keep social distancing.
"To be honest, it has felt like we are playing training matches without supporters being there. It has been very unusual and you can see players haven't had a great appetite to be performing without their friends and family being there.
"So it will make a difference, but I don't think at any stage in the league we'll get more than 250 people in."
While clubs in the Republic were able to arrange challenge games from the end of June, that wasn't the case for clubs in the Six Counties.
"A lot of clubs didn't get a friendly match in before leagues started, because of insurance issues," O'Hagan pointed out.
"A lot of northern counties played challenge matches in the south instead.
"We managed to play one friendly the week before our league started.
"In Tyrone, there is no promotion or relegation this year, so clubs are treating the league games as a way to get up to speed, which is helpful with the championship in mind."
O'Hagan, who won three Ulster titles with the Red Hands but lost in the 1986 All-Ireland final to Kerry, contracted Covid-19 in March.
But it wasn't until his son Tiernan's Sheffield-based company NTL Biologica came to Coalisland to test 90 people at the club for antibodies that a positive test was confirmed.
"I knew it, I felt it," said O'Hagan. "I had severe pain all over in March, it was in my bones and I experienced tiredness over six or seven days.
"Out of the 90, five tested positive for the antibodies, but thankfully I'm fine now".
