By Niall Gartland

ARDBOE manager Mickey Donnelly is delighted that an official date has been set for the long-awaited return of collective training – and he says that any clubs who are breaching the rules are only fooling themselves in the long-run.

Collective training is strictly off the table until April 12, at which point club teams in the north may return to outdoors training in pods of up to 15 individuals.

However, rumours are rife in the county that not everyone is abiding by the guidelines, and Donnelly argues that alleged rule-breakers won’t benefit in any footballing sense anyway.

“The GAA is a wonderful association but given the parochial element of it, we’re all into what our neighbours are doing.

“You you hear all these rumours about such and such running around parks and forests, but you know what, I think we all have a duty of care to make sure that everybody’s safe.

“Players need to know that you have their safety at heart and I think they’ll respect you for that in the long.

“It’s very easy to be training five or six lads three or four nights a week but it’s the height of madness.

“It’ll make no difference in the long run, and players will come back extra-motivated if they’ve been following the rules.

“If you’ve been futtering about for the last six or seven weeks doing running blocks, running blocks and more running blocks in groups, lads soon get fobbed off with that too.”

The GAA’s Covid Advisory Body confirmed earlier in the week that training for adult and youth level players will resume on April 12, and Aghaloo clubman Donnelly is thrilled that there’s light at the end of the tunnel for everyone with a stake in the association, but particularly our young people.

“We’re counting the days, and if it’s just pods of 15, we’ll deal with it. I know from my own family, that everyone’s crying out for a bit of a release and to be able to spend time together again.

“People have been limited to their own family bubbles and it’s very difficult, particularly for children and teenagers.

“We all did plenty of mucking about when we were 16 or 17-years old and that cohort of the population have had no social release at all. They’ve not been able to see friends and share their problems, and have missed out on birthdays and things like that.

“It’s very difficult and the advent of football starting up again will help everybody. It’ll lift everybody in our communities – we’re all part of this great hamster wheel, and journalists need it, coaches need it, supporters and players need it.

“ We just want to see sport back. Obviously it has to be done in a safe environment, but cases yesterday (Tuesday) were down below 100 and things are going the right way.”

Donnelly, who is head of sixth form at St Ronan’s College, Lurgan also said he was understanding of the recent decision of Ulster Schools to scrap all its competitions for the year, including the prestigious MacRory Cup competition.

Donnelly, who helped manage the school to the MacRory and Hogan Cup in 2018, said: “It’s disappointing but the Ulster schools were in a tricky position and in teaching and education we’re in a sector where we’re ultimately looking after young people and couldn’t really take a chance.

“So it’s disappointing but ultimately it was a common sense decision.”

Meanwhile, clubs across the north will benefit from the grant of £7.38 million paid to Ulster GAA by the Sports Sustainability Fund Programme. Twenty-five Down clubs will share more than £1.2 million between them, while Antrim and Tyrone clubs will also benefit to the tune of more than a million pounds. Armagh, Derry and Fermanagh will also receive revenue, while separate funds will be divvied out between Ulster camogie, Ulster LFGA, and Ulster Schools.