Players staying put, says Burns

THE GAA’s games presentation committee chairman Jarlath Burns has ruled out the possibility of teams changing in opposing stands at Croke Park after Sunday’s Hogan Stand tunnel fight.

While accepting it would be “a solution” to avoiding incidents such as the fisticuffs between Cork’s Michael Shields and Dublin’s Philip McMahon, the former Armagh captain said such a proposal would be shot down by counties because of the Hogan Stand’s state-of-the art facilities.

According to Burns, counties would strong oppose the possibility of having to tog out in the Cusack Stand dressing rooms, which don’t possess the same space or amenities as there are in the Hogan Stand side.

“I was thinking about it myself,” said Burns about the idea of splitting the teams into the stands. “At the moment, the teams in the curtain raiser use the Cusack Stand with the teams in the main game using the Hogan.

“The changing rooms in the Hogan Stand are very plush and luxurious and they have warm-up rooms connected to them. There would be issues if a team were to use one of those facilities in the Hogan Stand and the other was to use one of the two on the Cusack Stand side.

“Then there the traditional aspect associated with the whole thing and I don’t think you would get away with it. It would definitely be a solution but if a team like Armagh were to win an All-Ireland again and people managed to get on the field how could the players get back to the changing rooms if they were in the Cusack Stand.

“Something like that would also have to be taken into consideration.”

Shields and McMahon face an anxious wait as the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) are expected to meet over the incident. If the pair are handed four-week bans, neither will miss their counties’ respective provincial openers. A month suspension would elapse the day before Cork’s Munster SFC quarter-final with Clare, thus allowing Shields to play in the Páirc Uí Chaoimh game on May 22.

Dublin aren’t out until June 5 when they face the winners of Laois and Longford in Croke Park on June. However, were the pair to be given eight-week bans Shields would miss two games and McMahon one.

Burns saw first-hand the frenzy of a tunnel half-time bust-up in “The Battle of Omagh” in 1989 between Tyrone and Armagh when John Lynch was struck by an Armagh player and was unable to play in the second-half. He argues the Shields-McMahon incident is an isolated one and is unlikely to be repeated during the championship.

Burns, who also acts as his county’s Central Council delegate, also remarked stewards may have been slow to react to the bust-up after a clean first-half.

“It was great to see the passion in Sunday’s Division 1 final,” said Burns of the game itself. “There’s been a situation at the end of league finals with players merely shaking hands and there’s no sense that they’ve contested for a national title and that was a wee bit disappointing.

“Unfortunately, passions spilt over and off the pitch but I doubt if you’re ever going to see that happen on a regular basis. It’s not like it happens every week. “

Ex-Dublin star Keith Barr claims too much is being made of the tunnel bust-up and there is no need to put teams in dressing rooms in different stands.

“There was an incident, yes, it was an unsavoury incident but would I think I would harp on about? No, it wouldn’t and neither would the players,” said Barr. “I’m not condoning what happened but there are medals to be won and there are bound to be tensions. It was handbags stuff.”