Tackle culture of violence
The violence which erupted in the All-Ireland Club JFC semi-final between Dromid Pearses (Kerry) and Derrytresk (Tyrone) was unacceptable and regrettable.
We all must acknowledge that as a starting point — because the amount of GAA people who still belive a bit of a melee is no cause for concern is staggering.
We must accept as an undisputable fact that what happened last weekend, or to Martin Sludden in the Leinster final two years ago, or after the Connacht club final before Christmas, is wrong behaviour.
Unless that acceptance occurs at all levels of the association then we cannot have a starting point for any meaningful analysis, or to put steps in place to halt such incidents besmirching and defiling our games.
The melee Sunday, and the incident after the game where Declan O’Sullivan was assaulted by an opposition supporter, once again shone a bright light into the dark hole that is unacceptable violence in the GAA.
Some of the Dromid Pearses team sustained nasty injuries and while that is disgraceful in itself, the melee had the potential to get far worse and could have led to some very severe injuries for players, officials and supporters.
In my opinion, the most appalling and unacceptable part of the entire scenario was the way that the Derrytresk subs were so quick to jump the sideline hoardings to join in and escalate the incident. Their arrival was the oxygen the skirmish needed to get very ugly and dangerous. Had they stayed in their seats — where they should have — the match officials would have been able to restore order much easier and more efficiently.
To see subs coming onto the field of play to join in a disagreement is one thing that all fair-minded players and supporters despise. There should be severe sanctions for such behaviour.
If a man is good enough at football or hurling to be on his club team, fair play to him. Get out there and play ball.
However, you let yourself down badly coming into the field of play and start hitting slaps. If that is all any GAA player or supporter is good for, they should buy a pair of boxing gloves and switch activities.
It was interesting to read Fintan O’ Toole’s perspective on the atmosphere of the game on this paper’s sports blog earlier in the week — where he described the tie “as a powder keg waiting to explode”.
The antagonism between Tyrone and Kerry over the past few years appears strong and emotions were probably running high even before the ball was thrown-in.
That keg just needed a spark, and the Derrytresk fuse appeared in good fettle for lighting.
Having played regularly against many of the teams from Ulster at both club and county level in challenges, league and championship, I was not stunned by that.
Club and county teams from Derry, Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal — can play with an edge and a physicality that you would not come across that regularly with other counties or clubs. Meath teams were no shrinking violets either when it came to ‘mixing-it’.
That is not to say that northern teams are dirty or overly aggressive, however, I would contend that they take their football extremely seriously and are more intense and physical when compared to many other counties.
Just one example to illustrate my point about the culture of intensity and physicality that some teams bring to the game and I remember this incident as clear as day, even though it happened over a decade ago.
We were playing Tyrone in a fairly innocuous NFL game in Tuam and I came onto a ball at speed coming out of defence. As I charged out with possession I managed to floor and power out through one of the lighter Tyrone forwards. It could quite easily have been a free in against me, but no whistle sounded, and I played a one-two with our midfielder to try and create an overlap up the field.
Fully 30 yards from where I had bumped over him, the same player rugby tackled me below the knees with real intent to stop my progression. He picked up a yellow card for the tackle, however the message was crystal clear — ‘ye won’t bully us and ye won’t walk on us and if it is going to be that kind of a game, we are well up for it’.
I barely remember who even won the game but it was as physical as any championship game and I have never forgotten the incident, or the force and passion of that rugby tackle.
Culture within the GAA needs to change.
Through tradition, history, location and structure, counties and clubs build up their own culture. And that is particularly true in Ulster.
The GAA at large has a distinctive culture too. It is unique and we should be rightly proud of that, however we need to address the fact that there are too many incidents such as Sunday’s and the sanctions for them have not been severe or consistent enough. There is no point in having a song and dance about who was at fault for last weekend’s fracas and who started the swinging that led to the incident.
The only thing now that matters is that the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee deals with it fairly and promptly. Justice needs to be done not just for the victims but for the GAA.
