Tyrone PRO urges everyone to ‘sit tight’

ALL GAA activity within the county has been placed on hold until March 30 at the very earliest, and Tyrone PRO Eugene McConnell says all we can do at this juncture is “sit tight” and hope that the measures have a positive effect.

A blanket ban on all matches and any form of training, was declared by the GAA on early Thursday afternoon, a matter of hours after the Irish Government announced a historic lockdown in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak. The penultimate round of National Football Leagues games were the first casualty at the weekend, including the much anticipated Division One derby clash at Ballybofey between Donegal and Tyrone.

The scheduled Under-20 All-Ireland semi-final clash between Tyrone and Dublin at Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day also fell by the wayside.

While deemed by most as a sensible and necessary precaution, there’s naturally a great deal of confusion about whether the remainder of the season will go ahead as scheduled.

Eugene McConnell hopes that the picture will become clearer after the next few weeks, but the overriding concern at the moment is the healthy and safety of the local GAA membership.

“I can’t remember anything like this happening in my time and I’m a long time knocking about,’ he said.

“Everyone’s learning with each passing day, and the advice is that we try to stem the tide before things get more problematic further down the line.

“The GAA’s decision wouldn’t have been taken lightly and it’s the best interests of everybody that we follow the instructions because we’re not the experts.

“All we can do is sit tight and hope that these guidelines help address the problem, and then in a few weeks’ time we’ll be able to assess the value of what the GAA is advising.”

FULL STORY IN  TODAY’S TYRONE HERALD