Clare football boss Colm Collins reckons that a balance must be struck between protecting people from the coronavirus and realising the benefits of sporting activity.
Collins is also manager of Cratloe and has first-hand experience of a shutdown after six members of the dual club tested positive for Covid-19 last week.
That has meant a delay to the Clare SHC with other clubs in the county supporting the rescheduling of games.
In May, Collins felt that there would be no appetite for games behind closed doors but, having seen what it means to those involved, he's had a change of heart.
Like everyone Collins is wary of the virus grabbing hold in the community but urged people to recognise the virtues of sport on general health.
"You can't [protect everyone all the time]," he told RTÉ 2fm’s Game On.
"It’s a balancing act. I mean the value of all types of sport in people’s lives... you never realise how important they are until you are without them.
"Even though it’s being streamed [online] and there’s no crowds [the players] really look forward to it.
"So it’s not just a clear case of saying 'it’s not their livelihood [so they don’t have to do it]’.
"Any player who’s playing now will get the option of saying ‘it’s not for me, I have people around me that I’m concerned about’, and they can opt out.
"I think we are going to have to live with it. It’s going to be with us for a while.
"The best we can do is take all the precautions we can."
'The vigilance that we had at the start, that got us into such a great position, we abandoned it so easily' - @GaaClare football manager Colm Collins on the impact of Covid-19 pic.twitter.com/9gn8sgAiBq
— RTÉ GAA (@RTEgaa) August 17, 2020
Collins was impressed at how fast the club acted upon getting confirmation of the first positive test and detailed how, if there was any positive to be gleaned from the case, it was that it appeared that no transmission took place within the GAA environment.
He said: "This has been associated with Cratloe GAA club but it had really nothing to do with it except a group of friends that play with us all contracted it.
"It wasn’t in GAA activity that it was contracted. It wasn’t anything to do with the club.
"The club was valuable in the sense that it’s an organised structure and we could return the names [to the HSE] but this came from a group of friends that socialise together.
"One pleasing thing about it, if there’s any, is that we had a match on the Monday evening and we had two training sessions and there was no transmission from any of those.
"I don’t know can you generalise in that way but I just saw that the team that we played on Monday all came back negative from their tests."
Clare are due to face Limerick in the Munster SFC quarter-final on the last weekend in October but Collins said he's not sure about how it will all play out.
"I’m not one bit confident," he said of the chances of seeing inter-county games this year.
"Unless we start being so vigilant again and unless people start looking after themselves and the people around them and [see] the big picture, I think inter-county would be in danger.
"Everyone is slow to let the 2020 season go but we may have no choice."
