Ó Sé in Rules boost as Kelly probes legal concerns

THE Irish management are hopeful Kerry star Tomas Ó Sé can still play an active part in Sunday’s opening test in the Coca-Cola International Rules series against Australia in Croke Park (2.10pm).

With association president Sean Kelly claiming yesterday that reports of the Gaeltacht star’s jaw injury were ‘greatly exaggerated,’ manager Pete McGrath said they expected to have a better idea today whether or not he would be ruled out. The advice from team doctor Con Murphy was that he would ‘definitely’ be able to play in the second Test on Sunday week.

“No decision on a replacement will be made until we are 100% certain he is unavailable,” McGrath said.

Mr Kelly also revealed that the association will examine the circumstances surrounding how Trevor Giles was cleared to play for his club Skryne in the Meath final on Sunday.

The former Footballer of the Year had initially been banned by the Meath county board for four weeks after being sent off in the semi-final against Dunshaughlin, which would have ruled him out of the decider, won by Skryne.

A subsequent appeal to the Leinster Council saw the case being referred back to the Meath board who overturned their earlier decision and ruled that Giles could play against Simonstown.

Although Giles’s offence was not caught on camera, the reason offered for his pardoning by Meath officials was the testimony of seven independent witnesses at a hearing last Thursday night. It follows another contentious decision earlier this year to reduce a 12-month ban on Graham Geraghty, enabling him to line out for the county in this year’s Leinster Championship.

“It will have to be looked at,” said Mr Kelly yesterday. “It happened before in relation to Darragh Ó Sé in Kerry when he was put off. It’s a very dangerous situation.

“Our rules have been there for a long time and while they may be faulty in some ways in terms of being very clear-cut, they were there for all to see and everyone understood the situation. What has been happening in terms of court cases, in particular, over the last few months is not positive.”

Mr Kelly accepts that the growing trend in challenging GAA rulings could, in some way, be partly responsible for the breakdown in discipline. With that in mind, he has been pressing the Rules Review Committee especially hard in recent weeks and he expects the group to have concrete proposals on the table for Congress next April.

“It is a worry, particularly for an organisation of our size and tradition. Discipline is the kernel of the operation and if you have a breakdown in discipline, and a constant questioning over referees’ decisions and everything else, you are into a new ball game.”

As Mr Kelly indicated, recognising there is a problem is the first step towards finding a solution. But what exactly is the solution?

“An independent disciplinary system, a proper appeals system, a proper tribunal independent of people involved which people can have faith in. We probably have to speak to the Department of Justice because [the courts] are unwittingly creating this situation. They are creating loopholes by granting injunctions on the basis of very low burdens of proof, on the basis of some spurious argumentative cases which never go to court and that’s all undermining what was there traditionally.”