Cork players must sweat it out

CORK senior footballers will continue to sweat for at least another day before knowing whether they will be stripped of their Munster championship crown following the use of six substitutes in Sunday's provincial final against Tipperary.

There was little movement to resolve the issue yesterday, as both the Munster Council and the Games Administration Committee both claimed that the other should adjudicate on the controversy which clouded the replay of the Provinical final.

However, at a gathering of GAA officials including President Seán McCague in Thurles for a function to celebrate the 100th birthday of Dr Croke, one of the founders of the Association, it was announced that the matter is to be settled by the Munster Council.

The Council are as a result expected to convene a meeting of their GAC tonight.

The rule governing games states that the provincial councils are responsible for the management of their hurling and football championships except for the appointment of referees and matters of discipline arising from those games.

Resultingly, the Munster Council PRO Fr Séamus Gardiner argued that the National GAC should be forced to deal with last Sunday’s problem, as the referee’s report on the match would go to them.

Yet the GAC chairman, Pádraig Duffy, is adamant that this is a matter for the Munster Council to adjudicate on.

“We only become involved if there are matters of discipline, ie trouble on the field of play, mentioned in the referee’s report,” he claimed yesterday.

Fr Gardiner countered that it came down to a matter of interpretation of the word discipline as to who has responsibility for dealing with this latest case.

“If it was a matter of discipline, the GAC would deal with it, anything else and it’s a matter for the Munster Council,” he said.

“We had hoped that Sunday’s final would see the completion of our programme for the season. It now looks as if it will drag on for another couple of days at least.”

Tipperary PRO Liz Howard said the matter was outside their jurisdiction while the Cork County Board, through its PRO, Pat Horgan, issued a statement stating that the board will address any matters from Sunday’s game when and if they arise at Munster Council level.

Should Tipperary formally lodge an objection, under rule, they would be entitled to the game and Cork would go on to play Mayo in Saturday’s All-Ireland qualifier.

However, a prominent Premier County official said seconds after the final whistle last Sunday that while Cork had infringed the rules, his county would not be objecting, and at least one Tipp player who took part in the game, said he didn’t want to win a Munster championship medal under such circumstances. On the question of substitutions the rule states that only five can be used in a game.

In the case of a blood substitution he must be one of the five, except in the case of a goalkeeper who can be replaced from outside that number.

There have been two previous cases involving substitutions which made national headlines. The first involved a Leinster club SFC semi-final between Na Fianna and Sarsfields, where the Dubliners readily admitted they used six subs.

That case was dealt with by the Leinster Council as it was their fixture and the outcome was that Sarsfields were given a replay at home in Newbridge which they lost.

The second incident involved Sligo and Kildare in a NFL tie earlier this year where the Lilywhites used five substitutes and a blood sub, effectively six substitutes, similar to what Cork did on Sunday .

That game ended level, but Sligo were subsequently awarded the extra point, by the committee responsible for that fixture, the GAC in Croke Park.