The lockdown has affected us all but GAA players are especially feeling the pain of these social distancing requirements. In the blink of an eye, players have gone being overtrained to not being trained at all. April was supposed to be a club month, a time when the ground hardens and the bleakness of winter training lifts and we can all rekindle the love of the game that we all have.
As ever, Murphy's Law continues to govern the GAA world, and it dictates that the six weeks that we're forced to spend indoors are flat-out gorgeous after a January and a February that were unmatched for rain, wind and muck.
C'est la vie as they say in France.
It's been interesting to scan through GAA Twitter over the past number of days and notice the spike in tweets from GAA players - both at club and intercounty level - who are simply gagging for any kind of training, be it a game of forwards v backs or just the opportunity to boot some wides.
Here are some of our favourite tweets from GAA players on missing training.
Imagine training 2/3 nights a week and a match on a Sunday afternoon in that weather, would depress ye thinking how good it could be😓
— Ruairi Gormley (@RuairiGormley99) April 21, 2020
GAA managers around Ireland are just waiting the day they’re able to rip into one of their corner backs with a classic ‘you’re not social distancing now bai get tighter to him’
— Neill Byrne (@NeillB42) April 14, 2020
You’d miss just absolutely lorrying a few balls wide in the kick around before training
— Luke Martyn (@Lukemartyn_1) April 9, 2020
I miss walking into a dressing room before training or matches and all the lads are there shouting hello at ye or having a laugh with you one way or the other. Walking into the kitchen to be greeted by the mother just doesn’t have the same buzz! Hopefully see the boys soon #GAA
— Shane O'Sullivan (@shane_sull14) March 27, 2020
What's obvious is that we're all really missing the camaraderie and craic around training. Training provided a vital social outlet and even if it could be painful or tedious, you can't get the same buzz from a workout session in your back garden.
Today's Irish Independent (subs req'd) has news from HQ that says the GAA are urging counties to move quickly to restart the club game once restrictions are eased. We can only hope we won't have to wait much longer.
However Irish medical experts are saying that an easing of restrictions could be still be a long ways off.
Many are dreaming about the first pint after social distancing is eased. The first training session will be even better.
