Dr Crokes face probe over tweet
Munster Council PRO Ed Donnelly told the Irish Examiner he was “very disappointed” with the tweet and that it “reflected badly on the Munster Council, the referee and Dr Crokes”.
The tweet, posted minutes after Dr Crokes’ 0-13 to 0-12 Munster Club SFC win over Cratloe, read: “Are Munster Council taking the piss appointing that ref#muppet from Cork.” The referee of Sunday’s game was Cork’s Conor Lane from the Banteer club. Lane is a highly-respected official who refereed this year’s All-Ireland minor football final.
Within minutes the Dr Crokes club deleted the offensive tweet and distanced themselves from the post.
Donnelly said: “We know things can happen in the heat of the moment but we were very disappointed with that Twitter post.
“This tweet was unacceptable and we will be in communication with the club over the next days to ascertain exactly what happened and how we will deal with it.”
He added: “It did not reflect well on the referee, the Munster Council or, of course, on Dr Crokes. What is especially disappointing is that this is criticism coming from within the GAA. We can all deal with individuals criticising us — that is their prerogative. But we are trying to promote our games as best we can and then this is coming from a club. We expect a higher standard.”
Referee Lane took no issue with the tweet: “The Dr Crokes club has distanced itself from the post and that is good enough for me. I ref the match and write up the match report and that’s my job done.”
On Sunday, the PRO of the Dr Crokes club, John Keogh, believed their club account had been ‘hacked’.
“It must have been hacked. About half a dozen members have access to the account. It must have got into the wrong hands.
“It’s not something we do and we completely disassociate ourselves from that tweet.”
Donnelly had no problem with numerous people accessing club Twitter accounts.
“You could have 100 people with access to an account and something like this may not happen. We are hoping that this serves as a lesson to all who operate club Twitter accounts. It’s about educating people on the instantaneous nature of the medium. We have guidelines and we are constantly communicating with counties and clubs on these matters.”
