An anomaly the GAA had hoped wouldn't surface was yesterday revealed with the news that Kilkenny's JJ Delaney and Lar Corbett of Tipperary will both be free to play in their respective counties' first championship matches next month.
Instead of the widely expected one-match ban, the players will serve a time-based suspension of four weeks, which will expire seven days before the Tipp-Limerick and Offaly-Kilkenny fixtures.
So, despite being red carded in last weekend’s Allianz Hurling League final, the two players have been freed to play on a technicality that came to light a few weeks back when Longford’s Barry Gilleran, having been red -carded in the county’s final match of the football league, was given a one-match suspension by the Central Competitions Control Committee.
He opted for a hearing at which Longford argued that the application of match-based bans depended on an ultra vires decision of Central Council at the end of last year.
The background to this is the decision (92-8 per cent) by the 2011 GAA annual congress to introduce as a trial for the 2012 league and championship match-based rather than time-based bans.
At the end of last year, the trial having been deemed a success, Central Council voted to extend the provisions of the trial to the 2013 league, pending approval by last March’s annual congress to make permanent these provisions, which duly took place by a margin of 96-4 per cent.
Longford's argument in the Gilleran case was that, under Rule 3.45 of the Official Guide, Central Council had no authority to extend the trial period. Whereas Central Council is specifically empowered to run the GAA between congresses, the relevant rule states: "Nothing in this Rule shall be construed so as to admit to Central Council or its Sub-Committees authority to introduce, enact, amend or rescind Rules, or in any way vary or derogate the power reserved to Congress by Rule 3.38 . . ."
Threw out
The Central Hearings Committee threw out Longford's argument but on appeal to the Central Appeals Committee, it was deemed Central Council had tried to amend the rule in question by extending it into 2013.
On the basis that the subsequent Congress decision came too late for this year’s league, which was already in progress, the county’s argument was accepted and a four-week ban – a reversion to the old pre-2012 rulebook – imposed on Gilleran, freeing him for championship.
As a result, the CCCC would have hoped no players were shown red cards in the remaining stages of the leagues but Delaney and Corbett were sent off last Sunday after a brawl during the final.
Ironically, Corbett, who sustained broken ribs during the match, may not be fit to play despite escaping a ban. To satisfy the CAC’s objections the GAA would have had to have held a special congress at the end of last year or else specified in the 2011 motion that Central Council had the authority to extend the trial period to the 2013 season.
