Galway GAA confirms April Fixtures now also cancelled

It looks likely that a contingency plan to reformat the Galway senior hurling championship, among other competitions, will need to drafted after Galway GAA suspended their club fixtures for the month of April due to the on-going Covid-19 pandemic.

With a number of counties, including Dublin and Limerick, having already suspended their club fixtures for April, Galway GAA has followed suit after Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s sombre state of the nation address on Tuesday evening, outlining that the current crisis was only “the calm before the storm”.

Earlier this week, Galway Hurling Committee Chairman Paul Bellew told Tribune Sport it would be foolish not to consider the impact the possible extension of the blanket ban after March 29 would have on GAA fixtures locally – not only next month but for the year ahead – but, with the situation constantly evolving, he subsequently confirmed that Galway GAA was pulling all its fixtures for April.

Last week, the Hurling Committee and Galway GAA postponed the first round of the senior and intermediate hurling championships, due to take place on April 4-5, and, although the Government’s next review on the pandemic will not be announced until March 29, the SHC and IHC second-round games pencilled in for April 18-19 have now also gone by the wayside.

“We will need a contingency plan with no games getting played in April,” admitted Bellew, who stressed nothing will be decided without first consulting Galway’s GAA clubs. “The current structure could have survived if one round of games got played pre the intercounty season coming back, but not two rounds.

“If the intercounty scene takes precedence, as it looks it will, then we will not have the 10 weeks needed in our calendar to complete the senior championship in its current model.”

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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