With Covid risk and restrictions to the forefront of all our minds, football action is limited for this week at least.

Government Level 3 guidelines request that the public stay within their resident counties unless for essential reasons. Our governing body, the FAI, have issued all clubs with the following instruction 'Coaches and players are not permitted to leave their resident county for training with adult amateur and non-elite underage teams.' No doubt this is well intended for public health reasons but it does put our club, which serves our community in Clare and Tipperary in a very difficult position.

Regrettably, due to the County Boundary restrictions applicable under government Level 3 guidelines, and confirmed by FAI, all mid week training for the coming week, including the Position Specific Coaching has been cancelled. The reality is all our floodlit facilities are on the Clare side of the Twin Towns and with more than 60% of our members resident on the Tipperary side, it nots practical or indeed fair to leave our Tipp team mates in the dark and run training sessions for and by Clare residents only this week. We are all in this together.

We will ensure all squads get a training opportunity again next weekend, in full compliance with government and governing body guidelines. We are also exploring other midweek training opportunities while also lobbying for the obvious solution - recognising that the twin towns of Killaloe and Ballina function as one entity, one community.

Hoping for better days ahead, covid permitting and cross county border travel allowing we will run blitz activities during the mid term break to make up for lost time.

We appreciate the good will of our members and our community. We also acknowledge the disappointment our young members may have at missing out on midweek football and the fitness, fun and friendship that goes with it. We are conscious too of our role as a community organization and need to adhere to rules and set a good example. Nothing is more important than the health and safety of our members and our wider community. However, as the country learns to live we covid we would ask government and governing bodies to consider the role of community and understand that our community doesn't split on county lines. Two towns, one heart.

The matter has been raised with all local and national representatives and we hope that cross county community needs can be recognised in current and future restrictions.
Hoping for more positive news as the week progresses. Stay safe and stay well.