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Fermanagh captain Eoin Donnelly has spoken out about the lack of support his county received from the GAA after 10 of its players fell with Covid-19.
Donnelly’s team was relegated to Division 3 of the Allianz Football League today after Clare at Ennis narrowly outscored them, losing 1-11 to 1-09.
Fermanagh’s preparations for the decisive game fell into disarray after 10 of his team tested positive for coronavirus, while seven more were deemed to be close contacts and had to isolate themselves.
However, the Ryan McMenamin charges still managed to bring 26 players to Cusack Park, and even though many players weren’t near their peak, Clare was close.
Donnelly, who works in a hospital as a physical therapist and is well aware of the danger of Covid-19, felt that the GAA left his county to fend for itself.
Fermanagh had made a request to the Central Competition Control Committee for the game to be postponed, which Clare was willing to agree to, but the CCCC refused.
Speaking after the loss, Donnelly couldn’t hide his disappointment with the GAA and its decision makers.
“The whole situation of the last weeks, we parked it before going down and decided that we were here to compete.
“Our medical staff was 100%, communicating with the kids all the time, which is probably more than could be said for the GAA. I don’t think we have much support for us.”
He added: “I work at Ulster Hospital in the respiratory ward, so obviously we treat Covid patients, we see them arrive and obviously we have seen an increase in the last time,” he told RTÉ Sunday Sport.
“Obviously more and more cases have cropped up and we in our team have been affected quite significantly over the last two weeks with 10 players testing positive and then another seven being considered close contacts.
“He killed our team in the last half and we couldn’t have any collective training as a group in the last half.
“To be fair to management, they probably could have tried to cut corners and get the guys out on the field and be selfish and think about the last two league games, but they nailed it.
“They followed the advice to the letter, our doctor Niall, took it great and we had to take care of everyone and that’s what we did, we followed him as he was.
“On the flip side of that, obviously, it was disappointing that when we requested that the game be postponed to a time that was convenient for Clare, and Clare was pleased, it was disappointing that our request was rejected.”
Donnelly admitted that some of his teammates were still feeling the aftermath of Covid and was clearly unhappy with what he considered a lack of support from the GAA.
He said: “We were able to take the children out to the field today, but these are children, some of them, at best, could have been locked in the house for two weeks. Some of them have had symptoms and been fatigued and lethargic and all that goes with it.
“I play fair with the guys, they could have easily said ‘I’m erased here, I can’t do anything here,’ but they wanted to give their all for Fermanagh, so they came and gave it their all.”
“It was a match that we could have won, we lost by two points at the end and we had scoring chances. We put Clare on the neck and it is disappointing that we did not come out with a result,” he said. .
“Subsequently, the GPA came out and put in a few more requests for the GAA to follow up with the teams and run quick tests. That was all we couldn’t take advantage of, either because we don’t have a high enough profile or it hadn’t been set .
“I don’t think the GAA was in contact with our players as much as we would have liked, it was just a case of ‘moving on’ and raising some younger guys and stuff.”
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