By Niall Gartland

TYRONE playmaker Kyle Coney admits that even a friendly match would be better than nothing as he ponders whether there’ll be any more football this year.

It’s understood that the GAA is determined that 2020 won’t be a total write-off and that a period of club activity is now the preferred option to recommence playing activity.

That’s obviously contingent on how things pan out in the weeks and months ahead, and earlier this week the association said that it’s highly improbable that the All-Ireland Championships will start before the beginning of July.

It’s hard to believe that Coney will turn 30 in the summer – it seems like only yesterday that he was running riot as the star turn in Tyrone’s All-Ireland Minor Championship triumph back in 2008 – so he’s keeping his fingers crossed that there’s brighter days ahead.

“I would take anything at the moment, I’d even take a friendly game. I’d be in favour of an open draw as well if there is to be a championship.

“To be honest I’m really not sure what will happen – if this runs on there’ll be no time for provincial championships.

“If it came to that I’d be happy to see a bit of club football later in the year, even a straight championship with Ardboe.

“I’ll be 30 in July, you don’t have many years at that level so I don’t want to miss out,” he added.

It’s now just over a month since the GAA decreed a blanket ban on all group training and matches, and it did take a while for Coney to adjust to the change in routine, particularly as he is out of work as a consequence of the current upheaval.

“You don’t think it’s going to affect you that much but when you’re away from that team environment for longer than a week, you start to ask yourself ‘what am I doing with my time here’?

“In the past, even if Tyrone’s season came to an end, you’re still tipping away with club training and going to the gym and going down to the pitch with a bag of footballs.

“You’re always doing something but this here has thrown everything up in the air.

“We’d meet up with Tyrone a few times a week between the gym and collective pitch sessions and you’d miss all that, the buzz and the craic, and the intensity of the training.

“It’s definitely harder to get to that intensity on your own.”

Coney, who returned to the Tyrone senior ranks last year after almost a five-year absence, says it hit home for him that life had truly changed when his local club-grounds were locked.

“I actually went down to the club pitch the evening the GAA called an end to all group activity and put myself through a session that had been previously made for us by Tyrone’ s Strength and Conditioning Coach Jonny Davis.

“I was the last one out the gate at about 7.30pm and the Treasurer of the club was actually there, he does a bit of work around the club, and he put a padlock on the gate.

“It just struck me that ‘Jesus, this is something we’ve never seen before’ and ‘when will it come off again?”

While Coney can’t avail of a home gym like some of his Tyrone colleagues, he’s fortunate enough to live right beside a local school pitch to keep himself ticking over.

“There’s been communication with us by Johnny Davis via the Whatsapp group – things that we can work on individually if possible.

“Not everyone has the facilities. Some of the boys have home gyms but I don’t have that. It’s trying to work your way around it because you don’t know how long it’s going to last, it could last another couple of months or there could be no more football this year.”

He added: “I’m lucky enough that I live right in front of the school pitch – it’s like a mini-pitch with smaller goals and a catch net, it’s right behind my house so I can get out there and do a bit of training with a football and cones. I’ve that to keep me going.”

Reflecting back on Tyrone’s stop-start league campaign, Coney accepted that psychologically it was probably better than the league was halted just after their morale-boosting league win over Dublin, rather than their 19-point defeat to Galway the week before.

“We’re putting together a performance one week and then the next week it hasn’t clicked for us at all. It’s been patchy in terms of league form, we got over the line against Meath albeit it wasn’t our best performance, then we were beaten by Monaghan, that was a poor game.

“We beat Kerry in Edendork and that lifted the spirits around the county, then the following week we went down to Galway, Cathal got injured and we got a drubbing, and then the following week the spirits again were lifted with a good win over Dublin.

“Obviously the mood was in a good place after that Dublin match so we were looking forward to our next match against Donegal.”

Coney also made a point of urging everyone to maintain social distancing at this present time.

“I think the younger generation, and even myself until this happened, you don’t believe it until it’s on your own doorstep.

“You hear about people locally who aren’t well and everyone knows someone in that vulnerable category whether it’s parents or grandparents, so I’d like to get it out there to urge everyone to stay apart.”