IN ALL FAIRNESS - Disciplinary process requires transparency

In this column last week, I referred to three incidents of foul play in the Munster and Leinster Hurling finals that weren’t seen by match officials on day and that they could still end up in trouble.

Well, that has come to pass with Galway’s Cianan Fahy handed a two-match ban for his stamp on Kilkenny’s Richie Reid, and Clare duo Rory Hayes and Peter Duggan one match bans for incidents with Limerick’s Seamus Flanagan and Sean Finn.

A lot has been made about the influence of the Sunday Game evening show in this regard but what is being lost is the hypocrisy and downright two-faced approach there is to discipline by some who should know better.

I didn’t watch the Sunday Game night show when Brendan Cummins and Shane Dowling reviewed the games to be told that all three players could potentially be in trouble as I saw all three incidents with my own eyes on the live coverage earlier in the day. However, I do accept the inconsistency with regard to when retrospective discipline is applied in the GAA as we have seen other incidents over the years, sometimes worse, that the GAA’s CCC have declined to impose sanctions, and I suggested here last week that this cannot continue and a citing process needs to be looked at there games are reviewed on a Monday and any incidence of serious foul play, not seen or dealt with by the referee at the time, can be adjudicated on.

The Sunday Game are an easy cover for the GAA authorities to take the blame. That show has to discuss both the good and bad in games, including things that were or were not dealt with by referees. As criticised as the Sunday Game is by many at the moment, it would be farcical if the day ever came where they only commented on the good things and turned a blind eye to indiscipline for fear of potential disciplinary action. It’s no different than Match of the Day discussing issues of ill-discipline that the Premier League will only get to deal with a few days later so there is no difference with the Sunday Game, Sky Sports coverage, and the GAA.

That being said, it’s laughable to hear some of the takes on the three incidents and how they should be dealt with, particularly in the Munster Final where the game was so good and so intense, that serious foul play should be overlooked in that regard. So, does that mean that because the Leinster Final between Galway and Kilkenny was poor in comparison that Cianan Fahy deserved his suspension more than anyone in the Munster Final? Of course, it doesn’t.

However, I do believe that if the Fahy incident hadn’t happened on the Saturday evening, the GAA wouldn’t have done anything with Rory Hayes or Peter Duggan, as once they had to deal with serious foul play in one game on the same weekend, they had to do the same with others.

One area where Clare do have a beef with the retrospective process is how if Rory Hayes and Peter Duggan were cited for off the ball incidents, how did Limerick’s Seamus Flanagan get away for his high challenge on Shane O’Donnell, a player who has had his issues with concussion over the past couple of years. It would have been the ideal incident to highlight the seriousness of head-high challenges.

It shouldn’t matter that all the players on the receiving end of illegal challenges are okay, but what if they weren’t? If Shane O’Donnell had gone off injured with concussion symptoms, would Flanagan have been pulled up by the authorities? It is highly likely he would, and he’d have no complaints, as he has form in this regard with a similar head high challenge on Tipperary’s Padraic Maher in last years Munster Final, which earned him a yellow card, but it should have been red, such was the ferocity of it.

If we go down the road of not dealing with major incidents that referees and officials didn’t see during the game, then hurling and football will become lawless where if the officials can’t see you, then it is okay to engage in foul play. I am not talking about off-the-ball holding which is a growing blight on the game and players have to accept to some extent that is part and parcel of the modern game, but retaliating in a dangerous way is no way to deal with it and if you get caught, the player(s) only have themselves to blame.