Wexford boss Paul Galvin reckons the idea of clubs informing on their counties for training illegally is laughable.
Counties aren’t supposed to train collectively until September 14 and Galvin acknowledged ‘heightened’ club versus county tensions as a result, particularly in Wexford.
The GAA has threatened county managers and local board officials with suspensions if caught and has also advised clubs with ‘grievances’ to inform Croke Park directly.
Galvin’s take on the situation is that county managers should be allowed limited access to players between now and mid-September.
He told ex-Kerry colleague Tomas O Se on the Comhra Le Tomas podcast: “The idea during the week that clubs would report upon their own counties for county training, it was the height of this whole pandemic! I just thought, ‘Will somebody take me off the earth and leave me to lie down until I go to sleep’.
“You should definitely be allowed to meet up anyway, and do something, even if it’s just to get your medical people to look at these players and see where they’re at, or to get your fitness people to monitor them and see where they’re at. But to not be able to meet at all is a trick one. There’s the bones of 10 weeks to go, or 12 weeks, and that’s a long time.”
Former UCC star Galvin also said he feels ‘very strongly’ that the GAA should give more priority to the Sigerson Cup in January.
He recommended scrapping the pre-season competitions and providing a more prominent window for the third level championship.
Speaking about the O’Byrne Cup, Galvin said: “It’s not a competition I believe in – I truly believe in the Sigerson. I think the pre-season tournaments should go by the wayside, Sigerson should take precedence, absolutely, and let the inter-county managers use Sigerson as the pre-season.”
