Tribesmen boss Caulfield backs FAI decision to delay league campaigns

A week which should have seen the start of pre-season training for Galway United instead began with a club meeting over Zoom for the first collective ‘hello’ of 2021, but John Caulfield is completely behind the decision by the FAI to push back the start of this year’s league campaigns.
The 2021 seasons were due to begin on the weekend of February 26, but following a meeting between the FAI and the National League Executive Committee last week, it was decided to push back the start of both leagues until March, with the Premier Division to begin on the weekend of Friday March 19; and the First Division campaign to start a week later.
“It was absolutely the correct decision to make,” the Galway United manager told Tribune Sport this week. “You look at the numbers, the high number of cases [of Covid-19], you have to get numbers down and pushing things back a bit was the right decision,” Caulfield said.
“Training in pods is not ideal, you can’t prepare properly for the start of a new season like that. We had that last season [training in pods], and it was difficult, but even more so when you are dealing with a new squad, with new faces, it is difficult to develop that bond.
“We have a new group this season, and you could have fellas missing training. This way, the lads can keep tipping away on their own, doing a bit of work individually, and hopefully be in an even better position for the start of collective training next month,” he said.
His squad were due to commence pre-season training this week, starting with a group meeting where old faces caught up with each other and new faces were introduced. That still happened, but not in the setting that was planned.
“We had a Zoom meeting with all the lads on Sunday there. It wasn’t ideal, but at least it gave us an opportunity to ‘meet’, for the want of a better word, as a group and have a chat about the season.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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