Dublin in the dock: What sanctions could the All-Ireland champions face?

Less than 12 hours after the GAA warned a breach of Covid restrictions would put the return of the inter-county season in “serious jeopardy”, a number of Dublin senior footballers were seen to have gathered for a training session in Innisfails GAA club early yesterday morning.

On Spy Wednesday of all days, the “Irish Independent” landed a major story with photographs of some of Gaelic football’s leading players participating in a collective albeit non-contact training session.

“The GAA will pursue the allegations with the units in question at the earliest opportunity and will invoke any necessary disciplinary processes as appropriate,” a GAA statement read this morning.

As to what sanctions may be forthcoming, the cases of the Cork and Down senior footballers in January has created a precedent. Even if Dublin’s actions may be viewed more dimly given it came so soon after GAA’s statement on Tuesday, Down’s gathering in Abbey CBS in Newry on the evening of January 5 was on the same day GAA director Tom Ryan wrote to counties warning them a collective training session would be deemed as misconduct considered to have discredited the Association.

Unbeknownst to the GAA at the time who had enforced a training ban of their own in January to reflect the high Covid case numbers and deaths, no GAA training was permitted in the 26 counties. However, on this occasion Dublin knew that their behaviour contravened both Government and GAA Covid regulations.

So what sanctions may they face?

Competition ban - Unlikely.

Highly unlikely as much as a team can be disqualified or face expulsion under Rule 7.2 (e) of the GAA’s Official Guide, “Misconduct Considered to have Discredited the Association”. The rule also states suspension - a minimum of eight weeks - may also be deemed appropriate but the existence of precedent irrespective of the context of this alleged breach would suggest Dublin will be treated similarly to Cork and Down.

Individual suspensions - Likely.

Dessie Farrell did not appear to be at the Innisfails session but the event was supervised and as senior football manager he would be responsible for all the team’s activities. Like Ronan McCarthy and Paddy Tally, he could face a suspension. Dublin GAA may also be asked to furnish the names of those who attended the session with a mind to punishing them. Last year, chairpersons were told they too would be held to account if there were training breaches but in the cases of Cork and Down neither Marc Sheehan or Jack Devaney were punished.

Loss of home advantage - Likely.

Dublin’s senior footballers may not have any home games in the round stages of this year’s Allianz League as a result of their alleged training breach.

If the geographically-split Division 1 South goes ahead, it is understood the All-Ireland champions are due to travel to Roscommon and Kerry for two of their three games, the other against Galway scheduled to take place in the capital. The game against Kerry is set to be played in Austin Stack Park.

Should Dublin be punished as Cork and Down’s senior footballers were for training breaches earlier this year, their game against Galway will be played at a neutral venue outside Dublin.

According to the GAA’s Official Guide Part I Rule 6.45 entitled “closed months/collective training, an inter-county team found to have breached the rule “shall forfeit Home Venue in the next game in the National League”. The GAA’s senior inter-county training ban has been in place since the end December.

Cork are in Division 2 South with Clare, Kildare and Laois while Down in the north division with Mayo, Meath and Westmeath. In the event they too were scheduled to have just one home game, they won’t be staging any round matches on their own patch either.

The GAA define collective training as “where one or more player(s) is/are required to be at a specific place at a specific time on a specific date”.

Fines - Unlikely.

It remains to be seen if the GAA go down that avenue - they did not with Cork and Down - but An Garda Síochána may yet do so if the story is of interest to them. However, it’s their policy not to comment on third-hand material.