By Frank Craig

Maxi Curran isn’t prepared to write off the LGFA season just yet.

The Donegal ladies boss admits that the current uncertainty due to the Covid-19 pandemic continues to push sport well down the pecking order of immediate concerns. But that doesn’t change the fact that teams and players have to stay sharp and work extremely hard on retaining their conditioning bases in the hope that a ball might still be kicked later this summer.

He said: “Even with the new (championship) format, we hope something will be played down the line. You could still run that off in its entirety in seven or eight weeks. That would still be a lot easier to get through than what the men could be facing.

“There would have to be radical changes for them to get all done in a similar time frame.”

The reigning Ulster champions felt they were just beginning to find some traction when coronavirus took its grip. Donegal’s absent big hitters were dripping back into the mix and thoughts, even if they weren’t being expressed publicly, were no doubt turning to a serious All-Ireland tilt.

“We were quite unfortunate that the couple of matches prior to Cork we hadn’t won,” Curran said on his team’s league campaign to date. “We felt ourselves that the Cork result and performance was one that was coming.

“We had got a great lift from it and we were really looking forward to the Dublin game. We felt we were on an upward trajectory. We were starting to get players back. Niamh Hegarty and Niamh McLaughlin had played.

“They both would have been in the frame to start against Dublin. We felt we were just moving in that direction where we were going to be able to put our best foot forward.

“The couple of girls that were away in Australia, their time was on the horizon as well. We were gearing for a tilt at the championship. We’d a mouth watering clash with Tyrone in Ballybofey as a double header with the men. So much of our attention was geared towards that. It would have been a brilliant occasion. It was all bubbling nicely towards that. But like everyone else, the rug was pulled from under us.”

The current situation is far from ideal. Technology is playing its part in bringing the group together. But Curran said this will be an individual test of every single link in the Tir Chonaill chain.

The disjointed nature of preparation being experienced across the board in team sports might well throw up some skewed results down the line if a season of sorts can still be played out.

“This will ask serious questions of individuals. We’ll really see the athletes that are committed to the cause and the levels of motivation that are there. In team sports, people are driven on by each other.

“It’s potent and they feed off each other. Now, in isolation, individuals are going to have to dig really deep on their own. You can set up all the Whatsapp groups you like and send out all the online sessions, but at the end of the day this is a serious test of character now.

“If the weeks and the uncertainty drags on you’ll see decreases in motivation. So the sooner we get a wee bit of direction on where we might be going the better. It would refocus minds for everyone.

“But it’ll be really interesting to see how everyone reacts. I think you’ll have people coming back with huge levels of conditioning and aerobic conditioning. But the football skills will obviously have diminished. But you’d certainly have a huge level of enthusiasm. It would be a very interesting dynamic.”

Dublin, Curran argues, in both the mens and ladies games, enjoy privileges that simply cannot be denied. But for once, he explains, they might well be the ones at an actual disadvantage because of Covid-19.

“We often bemoan the geographical situation and the disadvantages the likes of Donegal and Mayo have to a certain extent. Certainly, their players are away from home and are on the road all the time. It takes such a toll being on the road like that.

“Dublin usually have their players all at home. Listen, there is no getting away from it, it’s a massive advantage. People talk about money and finance but ask any player; the perk they’d like most is to have more rest and recovery.

“No one ever goes outside Dublin for work or for college. Take all that stress and trekking away and it might throw up something really interesting in both the mens and ladies games if we were to get back under way. Again, you’ll find the coastal counties have access to beaches, access to remote running areas, sand dunes and hills that so many other counties won’t have. There are definitely advantages and disadvantages at play now which wouldn’t have been the case prior to this.”

He added: “At the end of the day it’ll still come down to the individual. Some are carried along with the tide of the group. Some need a push, some don’t. So much else is at play now. What ever happens will happen in a very short space of time. Luck will play a massive part. Week on week, I’ve been involved with Under 21 sides in the past and it can be so exciting. So we’ll just have to wait and see.”