McCartan banned for eight weeks

Down Senior footballer Daniel McCartan has failed to have his eight-week suspension overturned after being shown a straight red card in the Allianz National Football League Division 2 final last Sunday week.

McCartan was dismissed three minutes into injury-time, after walking on Aaron Kernan's chest - in a game which Armagh won by two points.

The 27-year old appealed to the GAA's Central Hearings Committee (CHC), but failed to have the initial decision overturned.

Yesterday Kernan had defended McCartan, believing his actions weren't intentional.

He said: "I don't like getting involved in these things but I didn't make much of it at all.

"I'd say if you look at it on TV, it looks like there's more to it, but he hardly touched me to be honest. Genuinely, I don't feel he meant to do what happened, I wouldn't see it as a stamp.

"It wouldn't like to see any man miss two or three months at the busiest time of the year over something like it."

According to a GAA statement, "the CHC did not find the video evidence submitted sufficiently compelling to contradict the contents of the Referee's Report."

This means McCartan is suspended until Sunday June 20th, and will miss Down's Ulster SFC quarter-final against Donegal on May 30th, and also a possible semi-final on Saturday June 19th.