WATERFORD GAA CHIEFS are to meet tonight where the Covid-19 controversy surrounding the Dungarvan club will be discussed and an investigation will take place.
Last night Dungarvan released a statement where they apologised for their handling of the scenario ‘where a player tested positive for Covid 19 after the game was played’.
They won Saturday’s Waterford county intermediate football final against Kill in Walsh Park but admitted ‘that errors were made by the club in the interpretation of the Covid-19 guidelines’.
The situation has attracted significant attention. Waterford chairman Sean Michael O’Regan confirmed to The42 today that they will investigate the matter further.
“The CCC we’re meeting tonight, on other things, it’s not just specifically on that. We’ve to discuss the postponement of the county finals, couple of referees reports, the standard run of the mill stuff like that. We also have to discuss what Level 3 means to us and the GAA statement.
“And obviously yes we will be discussing the Dungarvan situation and we will be investigating the matter. We’re going to tease that out. What we have to do first and foremost, we have to get the Waterford GAA committee going to set up the investigation and start that process. That will obviously involve talking to the members of the Dungarvan club and we’ll see where that brings us. That’s really all we can say for now. It’s an unprecedented situation.”
— Dungarvan G.A.A (@clgdungarvan) October 5, 2020
For O’Regan there is another twist to the story as Dungarvan defeated his home club of Kill by 0-14 to 0-10 in Saturday’s decider but he is adamant that it needed to be investigated regardless of the clubs involved.
“I was chairman of Kill GAA club for many, many years. I played football and hurling with Kill all my life. So the irony of it I was hoping last Saturday in my first year that the trophy would be going to my own club. That’s just the background.
“So yeah I’ve been talking to the Kill GAA club and the Kill chairman. They’re going with the HSE guidance and the contact tracing is taking its’ course. It’s a difficult situation anyway. The Kill link is just a bit of irony or an unusual situation. It just so happens to have been Kill versus Dungarvan. It would be the same if it was any club, I think we’d have to do what we’re doing now at the moment with the current situation we’re in.”
Waterford had already seent their fixtures programme impacted. The senior semi-final was postponed as a member of the Abbeyside-Ballinacourty panel was awaiting a Covid-19 test and the club suspended their activities as a result.
The game was refixed for last weekend with Abbeyside-Ballinacourty defeating The Nire on Saturday night in Dungarvan by 2-12 to 1-12, which set up a final with Rathgormack which was due to be held next Saturday afternoon until the GAA suspended all club games yesterday.
Please see statement below from our club executive pic.twitter.com/fQNsKbqbHx
— Abbeyside Ballinacourty GAA (@AbbeycourtyGAA1) September 26, 2020
“Obviously I believe all the clubs were doing great work,” said O’Regan.
“Everybody was trying to do the right thing. It’s all new to everybody, protocols and guidelines. Unfortunately this one is just something that went in the wrong way, didn’t adhere to the guidelines and the protocols.”
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