Dublin's 'home' clash with Kerry to be played in Portlaoise after Covid breach

For breaching Covid-19 restrictions and bringing the game into disrepute, it is recommended the All-Ireland champions have home advantage stripped off them for the first league game due to take place in the capital. Picture: INPHO/Bryan Keane

Dublin’s only “home” Allianz Division 1 South game against Kerry is likely to be played in Portlaoise, the Irish Examiner understands.

For breaching Covid-19 restrictions and bringing the game into disrepute, it is recommended the All-Ireland champions have home advantage stripped off them for the first league game due to take place in the capital.

Aside from issuing their own 12-week ban to Dessie Farrell that supersedes the suspension handed out to him by Dublin, that was their punishment recommended to the management committee by an investigations body for Dublin organising a training session in Innisfails GAA club last Wednesday week.

As well as Cork and Down for their breaches in January, Monaghan are also expected to lose home advantage for a game in Division 1 North too after they held their hands up for a training session in Corduff last month. They have also banned their manager Seamus McEnaney for 12 weeks, which may see him sidelined for the start of the Ulster SFC campaign.

Along with Galway and Roscommon, Dublin and Kerry are in Division 1 South. In February, Roscommon manager Anthony Cunningham said they were due to face Dublin at home in their first game. It had been thought in Kerry that they were due a home game against Dublin. Instead, O’Moore Park appears to be the neutral venue, which could come in Round 2 on May 22 or 23.

Meanwhile, Dublin’s six-time All-Ireland winning manager Jim Gavin has revealed he asked his players every year if they had faith in him. Each season Gavin put it to the panel that if they did not have belief in him to let him know and he would step down.

“When I started when I had Deego (Mick Deegan) and Mick Bohan there to Jay (Sherlock) coming in 2015 and Deccy (Darcy) was with me the whole way, every year we’d stand up and say, ‘If we’re not serving your needs fellas, just say, “Jim, you’ve lost your touch, you’ve just lost your energy. Get rid of me" as such,'" he told the JC/DC podcast, presented by Jonathan Courtney and Diarmuid Connolly.

“But it worked both ways. I’d say to the players, ‘It’s just not for you this year,’ or ‘you’ve lost a bit of focus on what’s required at this level. Go back to the club and try and hit the reset button’. Because your life is defined by those choices that you make. If you want to choose something else, fine - choose something else.”