This year's club championships have been given extra breathing room after the GAA moved return plans forward today.
Off the back of the government's earlier relaxing of Covid-19 restrictions, the association have revised their return-to-play protocols.
Club games can now be played from July 17, giving county board's an additional two weeks to run off championships - with 13 weeks now available exclusively to the club game.
Following the GAA's Covid-19 advisory group meeting, there'll be no changes to inter-county plans for a September 14 return to training and October 17 restart of games.
The plans also mean that GAA pitches will be open for adult training five days earlier than anticipated, while contact training sessions can begin from June 29.
The move comes after the government also revealed that crowds of 200 can attend outdoor events. That figure will rise to 500 from July 20.
In a joint-statement, the GAA, Camogie Association and LGFA confirmed a revised set of protocols this afternoon.
This week:
• Open pitches for Adult training next Wednesday, June 24th.
• Open for Minor and below from Saturday, June 27th.
• Both of the above on a non-contact basis and on the understanding that players and all participants have completed the eLearning module and are following the control measures in place (health questionnaire etc).
• On the basis of a maximum of 15 players in a designated area of the field (26 Counties) and 10 players in a designated area of the field (6 Counties).
• Coaching numbers for underage teams to be consistent with Code of Behaviour.
From June 29th:
• Allow contact training and challenge games for all from Monday, June 29th (26 Counties).
• We await guidance from the NI Executive in relation to 6 Counties – non-contact training in the numbers outlined above in the interim.
• We also await clarification on what will constitute a close contact versus a casual contact.
• Restriction on participants only attending training sessions to be relaxed from June 29th – subject to government specified maximum of 200 people in the ground.
• Allow Club Fixtures from Friday July 17th.
• No change to inter-county dates (Sept 14th for training; competitions to start on Oct 17th as planned).
• All control measures for players, coaches and other team personnel (completion of health questionnaire, eLearning education etc) is to remain
