Donnelly: Players respect managers who follow the rules

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.”

Read today’s Ulster Herald for our full interview with Ardboe boss Mickey Donnelly