CCC to act on O’Byrne battle

GAA president Christy Cooney described as “unsatisfactory” the fact that seven red cards were shown in an O’Byrne Cup game in Portlaoise on Sunday and has backed the Leinster Council to take the appropriate action.

Five players were sent off after one ugly melee towards the end of the first half between Laois and Kildare two days ago while another two were sent to the line for other offences by referee Syl Doyle before the final whistle.

“Referees are very clear that there is to be no deviation from the standards we set last year and that disciplinary rules are very important to us,” said Cooney.

“I’m not aware of exactly what happened because I haven’t even seen a report on it but it’s very unsatisfactory.

“Seven players getting red cards is not something we’re proud of and I’m sure the Leinster Competitions Control Committee (CCC) will deal with it within the rules and take the necessary appropriate action.”

The game in O’Moore Park was not captured by any TV cameras although Kildare did reportedly tape the proceedings for training purposes. However, Cooney is confident there will be sufficient evidence on which to base any disciplinary decisions.

“The referee’s report should be able to deal with it,” he pointed out. “The referee has four umpires and two linesmen and it seems to be that he dealt with the situation. There are seven officials involved. They seem to have dealt with the situation and let’s see what comes from the referee’s report.

“It’s a matter for Leinster CCC to deal with it. We would hope that we don’t have a repeat at any stage this year. It’s an unsatisfactory start but let’s move on with it and let the CCC deal with it in Leinster.”

The referee’s report was expected to arrive at Leinster Council offices yesterday and will be discussed before Leinster CCC meets tomorrow night to consider its contents.

Leinster Council chairman, Seamus Howlin, wasn’t in attendance at O’Moore Park but insists any outbreak of ill-discipline on such a scale must be dealt with severely.

“I’ve never heard of five players being sent off for one incident before,” said Howlin. “It certainly doesn’t happen too many times. I would be very disappointed that it happened this time.

“We’ll be looking at it very seriously and wouldn’t be treating a melee like that lightly. It is a serious incident and it will be dealt with in a serious way.”

The Longford man is confident that such an outbreak of hostilities is an isolated incident, with last year’s trends indicating an improvement in standards of discipline.

“Last year was a good year with regards to discipline. And while there were a few appeals, there weren’t as many as before so players are learning to accept their punishments.”

Cooney made the same point. Last year’s football and hurling championships were played off with a minimum of controversy, the Ulster SFC meeting between Derry and Monaghan at Celtic Park aside.

That has been attributed partly to the influence last year’s experimental disciplinary rules – in place for the national leagues – had on the general mindset of players but they were dropped after failing to achieve the necessary two-thirds majority at April’s Annual Congress.

Cooney said at the time that they could well be revisited in the future but the Cork man believes the lack of disciplinary issues, Sunday’s unfortunate scenes at Portlaoise aside, would suggest that there is no need to do so.

“We went with a decision at Central Council because things went so well in our championship last year that there wasn’t a need for revisiting the changes. Everybody played within the rules and the referees did a competent job. That’s still the situation.

“That’s not to say referees won’t be enforcing the disciplinary rules in our rule book. They certainly will. We have standards that we’ve set and want those standards maintained but they can’t be maintained without full cooperation of our players. We will continue to monitor what goes on, on the field but there are no motions for disciplinary rules changes before congress this year. We made the decision at Central Council not to do it but we’ll continue to monitor it.”