Galvin to appeal six-month suspension to CHC

KERRY captain Paul Galvin could be back in Croke Park tomorrow night to appeal the six-month suspension which was formally imposed by the GAA’s Central Hearings Committee (CHC) at a meeting at headquarters on Monday.

As indicated from the outset — when the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) proposed the penalty arising from his altercation with referee Paddy Russell and linesman Michael Meade in the Munster championship semi-final against Clare on June 15 — Galvin is set to pursue every avenue open to him in a bid to play some part in the county’s championship campaign.

Having failed with his appearance before the CHC, his next option is to lodge an appeal with the Central Appeals Committee (CAP).

He has three days to so following official notification of the outcome of Monday night’s meeting.

As it happens, the CAP has a scheduled meeting tomorrow night and the expectation is that Kerry will ask to have Galvin’s appeal heard then. “We will hear the appeal as soon as we get it,’’ said a spokesman.

For the first time yesterday it was revealed that Galvin was suspended under two different categories of offence — relative to (1) his action in knocking the notebook from the referee’s hand as he was about to brandish a second yellow card and (2) his altercation with the linesman immediately afterwards.

In the first instance, he received a 24-week term — under category 4 of Rule 146, which deals with ‘minor interference, threatening or abusive conduct or threatening language’ towards a referee, umpire, linesman or sideline official. All based on the referee’s report, incidentally.

Under category 2, which caters for ‘abusive language’ to match officials (in addition to playing offences of a minor nature), Galvin received an additional eight-week term — except that this will run concurrently.

* It should be pointed out that in both instances, the term of suspension represents double the minimum penalty (12 and four weeks, respectively) for the specific offences. Privately, CCCC sources indicate that it has been their policy to double minimum penalties in all incidents involving reported abuse of a referee or match official — and that they have applied this on a consistent basis for the past year and a half.