Off the wall but no Jackson rebuke for Mortimer

CONOR MORTIMER is unlikely to face any disciplinary measures from the GAA following his unorthodox goal celebration in Sunday’s Connacht SFC final.

The Mayo forward scored his county’s second goal eight minutes from the end of the decider against Galway in Pearse Stadium before lifting up his jersey and revealing a garment with the words ‘RIP Micheal Jackson’ scrawled on it.

Mortimer’s tribute could conceivably breach the GAA’s rules on bringing the association into dispute or those pertaining to playing gear but no such moves appear to be in the pipeline.

Doing so would be “very subjective,” said spokesman Alan Milton and the GAA will obviously be mindful of the adverse reaction such a move would have, both here in Ireland and abroad.

Six years ago, there was wide-spread disbelief when the Laois county board was fined €1,400 after the six-year old twins of Joe Higgins, one of the side’s corner backs, took part in a pre-match parade. Messages promoting a political or commercial cause would be a different story but Croke Park seems to be taking Mortimer’s display with a pinch of salt.

“The GAA is an apolitical organisation,” said Milton. “It isn’t a Michael Jackson organisation.”

Players and athletes across the sporting spectrum have highlighted all manner of causes, beliefs, births and other significant events or people in years gone by with soccer being the main arena of choice.

Four years ago Liverpool’s Robbie Fowler was fined two thousand Swiss francs for celebrating a European Cup Winners’ Cup goal against Brann Bergen of Norway with a t-shirt slogan that read ‘Support the 500 Sacked Dockers’.

Mortimer also had a tribute – MJ – to Jackson stitched into his boots at the weekend and he isn’t the first player to risk the wrath of the GAA in this manner.

Six years ago, Wexford pair Damien Fitzhenry and Paul Codd, as well as Cork’s Seán Óg O hAilpín, used Paddy Power branded hurleys during the counties’ drawn All-Ireland semi-final. Talk of possible bans brought that practice to a swift end but another pair of Cork hurlers, Niall McCarthy and Kieran Murphy, took to the field two years later, for an All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford, with Corona-branded football boots.

A year later and it was another Cork player, dual star Breige Corkery, who was in the spotlight for wearing a Corona Extra logo on her hairband whilst playing for the county’s footballers in an All-Ireland quarter-final against Mayo.

Meanwhile Kerry GAA chiefs last night rejected claims that former Footballer of the Year Marc O Sé had quit the panel. O Sé was understood to be disappointed at being substituted at half time in Saturday’s victory over Sligo but reports he had left the squad were described as ‘completely untrue’ by Kingdom sources.