Prepare to be judged — we are the law

ALL RISE.

After years of whispers and furtive suggestions, the truth finally emerged this week. You are no-doubt aware of long-standing suggestions that the media sit in judgment when it comes to disciplinary problems within the GAA.

Prepare to be judged, then. The truth has now been acknowledged in public by Kerry County Board chairman Jerome Conway, who noted that if the media were judging Kerry footballer Marc O Se’s case then he would obviously get off.

As a defence, it shows lateral thinking. A few weeks ago Down football boss Ross Carr got his retaliation in first by blasting the pundits on the Sunday Game in advance of a game, which had the general effect on Pat Spillane’s guest line-up that Sunday evening of getting belted with a High Court injunction.

By pointing out the media’s power to decide cases in general, Conway’s comments have the effect of inviting the CHC and assorted bodies to enjoy the same kind of power as the media. By overturning Marc O Se’s suspension.

As an invitation to journalists to become even more self-important than we are already, difficult though that may be to imagine, it’s damn hard to resist.

For appearances’ sake the advantages of a billowing black gown are very tempting for this particular scribe.

There’s the general elevation of spirits enjoyed when you behave like a judge: asking people to rise when you enter a room, calling unruly public houses to order by whacking your little gavel on the counter-top!, not to mention watching the hush descend along the counter in McDonald’s when you pull on the black cap to decide whether to go Supersize on your Double McBacon and Cheese Meal.

As Judge Dredd used to say, I am the law and you better believe it.

MORE seriously, Marc Ó Se was given a straight red in last Sunday’s Munster football final when he stepped across Cork forward Sean O’Brien and shouldered the Corkman over the sideline.

If it’s fair to say there was surprise among many observers when referee Derek Fahy saw fit to proffer a red card to Ó Se for the offence in question, it’s equally fair to say there was less surprise that a referee should send off a player from one team when the opposition have already been reduced to 14 — and rather easily at that.

Cork had already lost Nicholas Murphy to two yellow cards last Sunday when Marc Ó Sé was sent off.

It’s no criticism of Derek Fahy’s ability as a referee in particular to state that in general, most GAA players are aware that as soon as an opponent has been sent off, many referees — whether consciously or unconsciously — are inclined to even up the numbers if given the opportunity.

Just as there was for many years an unspoken tradition of trundling on into the depths of injury time to find a draw between two teams in the championship, the inclination to “make a game of it” by evening matters up has no grounding in the written rules, though it has a vibrant life in the practical realities of officiating at GAA games.

Scant comfort for Marc Ó Se to be impaled on the unofficial rules of the GAA, just as it’s scant comfort for Nicholas Murphy to be gored by the over-official rules of the GAA. The happy balance is what you want.

And in the interests of a happy balance, we should say that when Jerome Conway said: “If the media were judging his (Marc Ó Se’s) case then he would obviously get off,” he also added: “But that’s not the situation.”

Generally when it comes to what to leave in and what to leave out, we’re the, er, judges of that.

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