Dingle selector Colm Geaney banned for eight weeks after Kerry brawl

By Eoghan Cormican and John Fogarty

Colm Geaney, the Dingle selector who struck East Kerry footballer Dara Moynihan in Sunday’s ill-tempered county semi-final replay, has been handed an eight-week suspension by Kerry GAA chiefs.

The two clubs have been slapped with €1,000 fines.

Video footage of the melee, which broke out during the second half of last Sunday’s Kerry SFC semi-final replay between Dingle and East Kerry, shows Geaney striking the young forward.

Moynihan wasn’t physically engaging in the brawl when hit by the opposing mentor.

The CCC of the Kerry County Board met on Monday night to pore through referee Paul Hayes’ report.

The CCC also studied video footage of the violent scenes which played out in front of the Dingle dugout early in the second half.

Dingle selector Geaney, deemed to have committed a Category 2A offence, has been given a proposed eight-week suspension.

The suspension would appear rather lenient when compared to the 48- and 96-week bans players from Ballyholland and Downpatrick were served with, by Down officials, following a league game marred by a brawl which spilt onto an adjacent car park.

The length of the ban decided by the Kerry CCC is consistent with the eight weeks given to former Offaly manager Stephen Wallace for his involvement in a brawl which marred a Kerry intermediate fixture between Ardfert and John Mitchel’s earlier in the year.

Geaney has three days in which to appeal his suspension.

Should he choose to do so, the appeal could be heard before Sunday’s county final.

East Kerry manager Gerry O’Sullivan, who was sent to the stand by referee Paul Hayes following the melee, received no ban.

Brothers Paudie and David Clifford will serve one-match bans for the respective red cards they were issued, meaning the East Kerry pair will miss the first game of the 2019 Kerry SFC.

Inter-county sideline regulations must be extended to club level to help prevent more incidents of violence in games, according to former Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) chairman Tony O’Keeffe.

The former Kerry secretary, who headed up the national CCCC from 2013 to ‘15 and before that the Games Administration Committee between 2003 and ‘06, believes it’s now beyond question that there must be a limit of club team personnel permitted on the whitewash.

The maximum number for inter-county and inter-club matches is five — manager, maor foirnes, two medics, and two water/hurley carriers — and in light of the disturbing scenes in the likes of Cork, Derry, Down, Kerry, and Tyrone, O’Keeffe wants to see that enforced across the board.

“The general rules and regulations at national level should be applied by the county board at matches. You don’t have these issues at national level, they’re emerging at county level.

They’re not being applied at county level and that’s the biggest issue. In Austin Stack Park there were a lot of rules and regulations that weren’t complied with, which didn’t help.

“The rules and regulations that insist on only five people being allowed on the sideline per team and everyone else is in the dugouts or whatnot should be followed. It’s not just in Kerry but right across the country.”

In some venues where there are no dugouts, capping sideline numbers would be difficult but O’Keeffe believes it can be done.

Among the other regulations are a maximum of 24 players allowed entry to the pitch enclosure for inter-club games and the number of team officials excluding players allowed entry to the venue limited to 17.

In counties like Armagh, Meath, and Tipperary, there are sideline monitors appointed and that is a practice that could be now be insisted on nationwide.

Meanwhile, two-time All-Ireland medal winner Pádraic Joyce is on the cusp of making his first foray into inter-county management having been nominated for the position of Galway U20 football manager. Joyce is one of six nominations for the post, including former senior manager Val Daly and Stephen Joyce. Stephen Joyce guided the county to the 2016 All-Ireland minor football final.

Three-time All-Ireland-winning minor manager Jeffrey Lynskey will go head-to-head against Tony Ward for the Galway U20 hurling job. Ward has been U21 manager for the past three years.

Former Westmeath manager Brian Hanley is expected to succeed Lynskey as minor manager.