In his report to annual convention last December, Down secretary Seán Óg McAteer took the opportunity to answer his critics after their protracted senior football managerial appointment process.

Kerry and Donegal are braced for the prospect of €5,000 fines and retrospective bans arising from Sunday’s melee-marred Division 1 game in Austin Stack Park.

Matt Busby once wrote in Soccer At The Top: “If anything is to be gained from football, it is to be gained bywinning or losing with dignity. If there are nations whose people so losethemselves in their emotions as to encourage the thug and the cheat they can be educated only by example.”