Dubs sweat on ref after punch claim

DUBLIN will discover today if one of their football selectors is mentioned in the referee’s match report on their ill-tempered O’Byrne Cup game with Wexford.

Paul Caffrey’s team won the a bad-tempered quarter-final by two points at the O’Toole’s GAA grounds at the weekend but the win has been overshadowed by a claim that one of their selectors entered the field in the second-half and punched Wexford corner-back Colm Morris.

The selector had been trying to relay instructions to Tomas Quinn at the time after which one umpire behind the Wexford goal brought the incident to the attention of referee Gabriel McKenny.

It remains to be seen however if it is mentioned in McKenny’s report, which will be received by the Leinster Council today. If it was found that there was a case to be answered then a heavy suspension would be inevitable.

Wexford chairman Sean Quirke was deeply unhappy with the incident when quizzed after Sunday’s game but county officials will await the outcome of the referee’s report before deciding how to proceed with the matter.

“We’ll be having our first management committee meeting of the year on Wednesday night and it may or may not be discussed at that,” said county secretary Mick Kinsella.

“We’ll wait and see whether the referee’s report will mention it. We’ll let it go through the official channels before we decide what our position is.”

Meanwhile, up to a dozen appeals are expected to be heard by the Central Appeals Committee arising from the recent crackdown by the Higher Education Council (Comhairle Ard Oideachais) on player eligibility for third-level competitions.

Those appealing include prominent inter-county stars Dessie Dolan, Ross Munnelly, Diarmuid Kinsella and Shane Ryan from Dublin City University.

They each received 12-week suspensions before Christmas for breaches of the relevant bye-laws. Tonight’s appeal will be chaired by former GAA president Sean McCague.

Appeals have also been submitted by five players from St Patrick’s Training College/Mater Dei Institute and four from Jordanstown/North Down Business Institute.

Players from Mater Dei Institute played with St Patrick’s reportedly without permission.

In the case of players from the North Down Business Institute, they were refused permission to play with Jordanstown.

The issue with the DCU players relates to the status of their courses, whether they meet the criteria for eligibility.