Ardmore protest as Prendergast is ‘singled out’

GAA OFFICIALS in Waterford are furious at the decision to rescind the red card shown to Kilkenny’s Eddie Brennan following Sunday’s ill-tempered NHL encounter against Davy Fitzgerald’s side in Walsh Park.

Brennan was sent off in an incident with Waterford defender Declan Prendergast. Following a review of the video, the Kilkenny forward was banned for four weeks by the Central Competitions Control Committee while Prendergast received — and accepted — an eight weeks ban.

All-Ireland winner Brennan appealed his sentence to the Central Hearings Committee on Thursday night and they cleared him of the charge of ‘attempting to strike an opponent’ based on video evidence and a recommendation from the CCCC.

But last night, Prendergast’s club Ardmore, expressed concern that the decision paints their player in a bad light.

“While Declan is manfully accepting his medicine we are angered that the powers that be are effectively saying that the blame for what happened lies in its entirely with Declan.’’

The club spokesman said that Prendergast was badly bruised in an incident prior to the dismissals.

“Is any member of the CCCC asking how that horrible mark got there, or is anyone on the CCCC really bothered about finding out? We are not attacking Eddie Brennan in any way, but we are expressing our annoyance that Declan is now being portrayed as the player solely responsible for what happened.

“That is not the situation and that is why our club wants to put that into the public domain.

“We really do resent that our player has now been singled out as the one responsible for that second half incident and what led up to it.”

Meanwhile Tyrone’s Ryan McMenamin’s eight-week ban remains in place after the GAA’s Central Appeals Committee rejected his appeal on Thursday night. The ban was imposed after the defender’s clash with Kerry’s Paul Galvin in last month’s ill tempered defeat to Kerry. McMenamin can appeal the decision to the GAA’s Disputes Resolution Authority but PRO Damien Harvey said last night that “no decision” has been taken on whether McMenamin would do so.

Elsewhere Kerry GAA chiefs are to accept a penalty of €2000 for “disruptive conduct by their players and officials” after the clash with Tyrone. Though disappointed with the decision Kerry chairman Jerome Conway confirmed they will not appeal.

“No we are not going to contest it,” he said. “The referee’s report was very favourable and there was nothing in the video which suggested we were guilty of anything wrong. But obviously the CCCC are clamping down on any disturbances before during or after games. We’ll take our medicine and we’ll move on.”

Tyrone received a similar fine and are unlikely to contest it.