Dublin County Board accept €6,500 fine for Armagh brawl

Dublin Board chairman Sean Shanley confirmed there will be no further appeals following the reduction to €6,500 of their fine for July’s infamous challenge match brawl with Armagh.

Both Dublin and Armagh were initially hit with proposed fines of €10,000 by the Central Competitions Control Committee for ‘disruptive conduct at games by players’, a charge linked to the serious facial injuries suffered by Dublin’s Davey Byrne.

However, those fines were reduced by €3,500 following a Central Hearings Committee meeting and Shanley said Dublin won’t be taking the issue any further despite the option of a further appeal to Central Appeals Committee.

In a statement, the CHC confirmed they found the “infraction as alleged was proven” though a lesser fine of €6,500 had been imposed on each county. That’s the end of it, as far as we’re concerned,” said Shanley.

Byrne, a versatile panellist with Dublin, was left with a broken nose following a clash with an Armagh player at the DCU sports ground.

Dubs manager Jim Gavin confirmed days afterwards an incident took place though he stated both he and Kieran McGeeney, the Armagh manager, wished to draw a line under the matter following clear the air talks between the two players.

Ironically, it’s understood Gavin’s confirmation of the incident and the injuries suffered was what compelled the CCCC to take action. But their bid to mete out punishment to the guilty party who inflicted Byrne’s injuries, and any other players who were involved, were thwarted by a lack of video evidence.

There was a similar downgrading of punishment for Liam Rushe, Dublin’s joint hurling captain, who had a proposed two-match ban reduced to a single game. The centre-back was dismissed in Dublin’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Waterford for “striking with a hurley with force”, a charge related to his injury-time strike with his hurley across the protective helmet of Déise’s Maurice Shanahan.

But, following a personal hearing with the CHC, the charge was reduced to “striking with the hurley with minimal force”, carrying the lesser one-match sanction.

Jamie Clarke, Armagh’s talented forward, was cleared of a red card retrospectively applied for “disruptive conduct” during their All-Ireland qualifier defeat to Galway in July.

The CHC stated in relation to Clarke: “A hearing was requested as he chose not to accept his proposed penalty. On August 27, the Central Hearings Committee found the infraction as alleged was not proven.”