It came as a blow last night when news emerged from Croke Park that there would be no Gaelic Games activity of any description until after Easter at the earliest and that the exemption for Inter-County activity as an elite sport under Level 5 had been removed.

It was confirmed by President John Horan and Director-General Tom Ryan after a virtual meeting of the GAA Covid Committee, including representatives of Ladies Football and Camogie.

There is no timeline offered yet on how this will impact on the Gaelic Games year and that will have to wait at least until the Government publishes its revised Living with Covid plan in the coming weeks.

There had been a hope that juvenile and inter-county training might be allowed in March if there was some easing of restrictions and a return to schools. That hope was misplaced and the news will be a dampener on households and friends across today and the coming days.

Gaelic Games provided an immeasurable lift to national morale in the autumn and into December as the weekend after weekend delivered quality homegrown action of the highest order.

And in midweek and weekend sessions kids and coaches were able to maintain social bonds without which the lockdowns would have been so much harder and deeper.

January felt longer in their absence but as the virus spread it touched on every community and there was an acceptance that the playing of games was not yet right.

The hope of spring though was at least on a near horizon. Everyone could accept ‘doing the right thing’ because doing the thing we love would be back in no time at all.

No time has now stretched to after Easter ‘at the earliest’, the last three words confirming that it was not only too early to lace up the boots but it was, even so, to think about it.

At a senior level, there will now have to be long thought put into the structure of a season that can no longer follow the path that was hoped.

Regional Allianz Leagues, and possibly the same in the Littlewoods and Lidl Leagues in the Women’s games, followed by Championships to wrap in July and then the Clubs returning to the fray was hopeful, exciting and spirit-raising.

That particular map can now be folded and put to one side.

The GAA Congress at the end of February is a natural point at which a number of different scenarios may be laid out but the planning is outside of any sporting administrator’s control for now.

At club level, the conclusion of last year’s Club Championship season where that was still needed now looks a long shot, and it is clear that 2021 will be an unusual and twisted path. To lose two years of what is potentially a ten-year lifespan of playing with your friends is a big chunk.

To lose those years as a child is even longer.

Plans for games to return were greeted with wide-eyed excitement after nine months of non-contact training and no excitement of pulling on your jersey to play and run and kick and score. Now we have to explain that it will be longer yet. It will be akin to explaining that Christmas can’t happen this year but maybe next. There will be tears.

And so we wait. We wait for vaccines, we wait for the plan, we carry on as best we can with the runs and the skills against the back wall. That is the Covid world. But it’s what we have to do, putting one foot in front of the other and it will pass. Really, it will.

Sport for Business Partners