Suspensions a distraction, says Gaffney

Dublin manager Paul Caffrey has admitted that the glut of suspensions which hang over his panel has caused a distraction for them in the lead-up to Saturday's NFL Division 2 final against Westmeath.

Speaking at the Allianz finals press conference in Stillorgan today, Caffrey admitted that it was hard for his players to keep their focus when they returned to training last night.

"It was a huge distraction last night I'd admit," Caffrey said.

However, he was keen to stress that his side will be giving it 100% as they try to capture the Division 2 title for the first time.

"Westmeath are probably a few days ahead of us in their preparation but we knew the game was on Saturday night.

"We'll gladly fulfil the fixture and we are going down (to Navan) to win on Saturday night.

"We'll have a very good training session tomorrow night and I will name the team tomorrow night after training and we'll travel and give a good account of ourselves on Saturday night."

While 'Pillar' admits that team selection will be hard, there is good news on the horizon, with defender Paul Griffin set to return jome from Australia and receive a call-up to the Dublin squad for the Championship.

"Paul Griffin will be back in the country shortly," Caffrey confirmed.

Reviewing last Sunday's ill-tempered antics against Meath, Caffrey believes that that media glare on the "unsavoury incidents" which happened and led to five first-half dismissals was cast too brightly.

"There will always be mistakes made, there will always be clumsy tackles.

"But reviewing the video evidence from the game, 90% of the players that were involved in that went in to stop anything happening. They went in to grab somebody or hold somebody.

"While visually it didn't look well, certainly it shouldn't have made the headlines it has.

"We are involved in an amateur sport, all of these guys come from proud clubs and come from families.

"They all have jobs to go to on Monday morning and I think journalists have a responsibility in this also."

Caffrey also confirmed that it has been left to the players themselves to decide if they want to appeal their own individual punishments.

Bernard Brogan and Diarmuid Connolly have both appealed against their two-month suspensions with Tomas Quinn and Paddy Andrews also set to contest their month-long bans.

"Four players are accepting the recommendations of the CCCC and four players are looking for personal hearings. The County Board will be pursuing that and I expect that to happen in the next 24 hours."

Caffrey added: "I would like to refute the allegations of Dublin being a dirty team. But I also accept the fact that the best teams win trophies with their best players on the field of play and that is something both I and the players have to take on board going forward and I think that is a big lesson for us."