The Donegal and Tyrone county boards are expected to appeal stiff sanctions handed down by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) in the wake of the half-time scuffle which marred the Ulster Football Championship preliminary round clash between the sides at Ballybofey earlier this month.

Both counties have been fined €5,000, while Tyrone assistant manager Gavin Devlin has been hit with a proposed eight-week ban for his part in the incident.

Should the suspension be confirmed, Devlin will be absent from the sideline for Tyrone’s opening game in the All-Ireland qualifiers on June 27th.

No players from either county are to receive punishments arising from the melee, which broke out as the teams headed for the tunnel at half-time in what proved to be a highly charged and controversial encounter.

Players, substitutes and officials became involved, but order was quickly restored, and no disruption was caused to a game that was eventually won by reigning provincial champions Donegal by three points. They march on to face Armagh in the first round proper at the Athletic Grounds on June 14th.

Reacting to the incident in the immediate aftermath of the game, Tyrone manager Mickey Harte said: "You know the way the energy was going that end of the game. It had been a hectic 35 minutes.

“It’s easy for us who are observing the game to be well in control of our emotions but the people who are out there in the thick of it, they just might not be in control of it so it took some of us to try and settle them down. I don’t think it was going to develop into anything too rowdy.”

He also said he did not anticipate any disciplinary action from the CCCC.

“I wouldn’t expect that they should. I don’t think it is anything too bad to be talking about. I think it is just the rough and tumble of the intensity of a Championship. I don’t think anything untoward happened in it.”

But Croke Park has taken a dim view of the happenings at MacCumhail Park, and now awaits any possible appeals from the counties involved.