Dusty Springfield's timeless classic came to mind as I sat down to put pen to paper on this topic.

I think we’re getting that chance to go back and play the game we all fell in love with as children, the games children are still falling in love with, the games we will or should never take for granted again.

Firstly, I hold my hands up and admit those words no person likes: I was wrong.

I could not foresee this happening a while back, I felt the only way would be a vaccine, but the people of Ireland have proven yet again that together there is strength and as a result have knocked this virus back and made it safe to play again.

We have a plan, a roadmap — no Google Maps or GPS needed here folks — for this to be done right under the guidance by the people who know best and have invested a lot of time and energy into this.

Anyone not following this set of guidelines should suffer repercussions that send a serious statement to everyone else. But how will it work — club championship first for 11 weeks or so, then our county heroes take centre stage from October on.

Yes, it will be condensed, there will be hectic scheduling, but accept it and be glad that we even have this mayhem to look forward to. We will never see this again in our lifetimes, we must all adapt and roll with it.

The word trust will be key in the success of this plan. Trust is being accountable, not perfect. In a workplace team-building activity, you would be falling backwards and trusting your colleagues will catch you. But this is a different type of trust that is required.

GAA and health officials must trust each club will do the right thing and implement the guidelines to ensure training and games are safe. The GAA family will come to the fore once again. Covid officers will ensure best practice.

These volunteers will trust members to do things properly, fill in the questionnaires, wash their hands, stay the recommended distance apart while out on the field.

And the inter-county manager will have to trust his players while they are still involved in club championship.

The current guideline is that county teams can’t train collectively until September 14, but Waterford manager Liam Cahill has already said it would be naive to think counties will adhere to that.

To make this work, I foresee the county player training for one night in a collective session, returning to their clubs for the rest of the week to prepare for club championship. That’s while their clubs are involved. When their club is knocked out, they would become a full-time county player again.

Communication between S&C coaches from county setups and players will be key here. Inter-county players have never been as educated in hydration, diet and recovery to obtain high performance and — most importantly — avoid injury.

The age old saying “Club before county” has now become a reality but where will the buck stop?

Who will decide if a county player can play both codes with their club, perhaps football on Saturday and hurling on a Sunday.

That would send risk of injury through the roof — I can see physios praying their phone won’t light up on Sunday evenings.

But we come back to that word again — trust. Trust that the player will do the right thing, will recover the best they can, will know when too much of a good thing is a bad thing.

This will take ‘player power’ to a different level then we have seen before.

If you have a player who wants to play every minute of every game for their club, how can the inter-county manager police this? Unless he lays down the law and says: “It’s your choice but don’t think you’ll be coming back in with us if you do.”

Then the county manager becomes the villain when he is just looking out for what’s best for the county team.

It’s a tricky one — very tricky — The Da Vinci Code was easier to figure out!

Still playing for my club, I know I’d want our county player on the pitch for every minute we can have him.

But that part of me that was lucky to be a county player knows and understands that if we are 15 points up or down late on, then we need to do what’s best for the player and get them off the pitch.

These players will live and die for their clubs but I do hope club managers don’t take needless risks. We all want to see our club name appear on a programme in Croke Park later on.

Spare a thought for the county boards in this, who are damned if they do and damned if they don’t in terms of trying to magic up a formula. They won’t keep everyone happy, but they must try to create a realistic and fair schedule for every club.

Finally, I have heard it said we are ‘throwing the clubs under the bus’ by letting them go first. I disagree. The clubs are driving the bus for now and it may need a service along the way and there will be bumps on the journey.

But every passenger on the bus is delighted it’s moving at all. So let’s see where the journey takes us.

There is a sense of togetherness that has got us to this point, we’ve been through a tough time and have achieved something special... isn’t it magic to be ‘Goin Back’.