GAELIC GAMES: TYRONE WILL be appealing defender Ryan McMenamin’s eight-week suspension to the GAA’s Central Appeals Committee on the grounds of precedent.
It was announced yesterday by Croke Park that the GAA’s Central Hearings Committee had imposed the ban in respect of an incident during the Tyrone-Kerry NFL match two weeks ago in which the player grabbed at Kerry forward Paul Galvin’s groin.
The decision is unusual in that it represents a heavier suspension than the six weeks proposed to the player by the Central Competitions Control Committee instead of which McMenamin opted for a hearing before the CHC.
Croke Park sources said yesterday evening that as far as they were aware this was the first time that had happened.
The eight-week suspension represents a doubling of the minimum prescribed for the offence of “behaving in a manner dangerous to an opponent”.
It was also confirmed that the suspension was based solely on the incident referred to above and did not take into account other incidents during the match involving McMenamin.
Although the CCCC effectively prosecute the case against a player before the CHC they are not allowed disclose what punishment they proposed to the player so the Hearings Committee can hear the case afresh – although in this instance as in many others the proposed suspension had already emerged into the public arena.
There was better luck for the Tyrone County Board in having a fine proposed at €5,000 by the CCCC reduced to €2,000 although the county confirmed that it will also appeal that.
“Each case is different and has to be treated on its own merits,” said Tyrone chair Pat Darcy.
“If you look at Ryan McMenamin’s offence – Paddy Campbell of Donegal did the same on Enda Muldoon and got four weeks. You would expect that if there was consistency and if precedence was being taken into accounts, Ryan McMenamin would have got four weeks.
“There seems to be some uncertainty. The standard punishment for that offence is four weeks. That is what other players have got in the past. But the CCCC proposed six weeks, and now the Hearings Committee are making it eight weeks,” he added
Darcy confirmed the Tyrone board will also contest the €2,000 fine imposed for ‘disruptive conduct by their players’ in the immediate aftermath of the NFL clash with Kerry at Healy Park.
“The CCCC proposed a €5,000 fine, and I argued at the hearing that that was excessive, and there shouldn’t be any fine. I still feel we shouldn’t be fined. Our stewards were magnificent, they stopped a worse situation developing, so why should we be punished?”
Other cases before the CHC on Thursday night resulted in Westmeath hurler Andrew Mitchell’s red card for ‘behaving in a manner which is dangerous to an opponent’ in the recent NHL match against Offaly being rescinded and the infraction regraded to ‘careless use of the hurley’, a yellow card offence.
Should Mitchell commit another yellow card infraction during the remainder of the league, he will be suspended for two weeks.
Meath’s Kevin Reilly was cleared of having committed a yellow card infraction in the NFL fixture with Cork earlier this month.
