GAELIC GAMES: The Leinster Council are preparing to launch an investigation into Sunday's O'Byrne Cup match between Dublin and Wexford.
Nothing can be decided until the referee's report has been lodged, but match official Gabriel McKenny from Louth took no disciplinary action after an altercation between Wexford corner back Colm Morris and a member of the Dublin management team.
"We will wait for the referee's report," said Leinster secretary Michael Delaney, "and if he makes no reference to the incident and Wexford do decide to make a complaint, there'll have to be an investigation."
Morris said after the match he had been struck by the Dublin team official, who had come on to the pitch to have a word with the team's corner forward, Tomás Quinn, but added that he hadn't recognised his alleged assailant.
According to one witness, an umpire noticed the incident and drew it to the attention of the referee, who then approached the Dublin sideline and spoke to the team officials but didn't caution or discipline anyone.
A Dublin source said McKenny instead reminded the selectors they weren't allowed to enter the field of play.
Unless the referee's report is more damning than that, there will be no immediate grounds for taking disciplinary action. It is believed, however, that Wexford will make a formal complaint about the matter to the provincial council and so trigger a formal investigation.
Wexford PRO Alan Aherne said there would be no immediate decision on the matter. "We have a management committee meeting on Wednesday night and we can't make any comment on the matter until then. It will probably be a long meeting, because it's the first of the year so there'll be 101 things to discuss and a statement is unlikely until Thursday morning."
Wexford manager Paul Bealin, an All-Ireland medallist with Dublin in 1995, was very critical of the incident after the match, branding it "a disgrace" and calling for the regulations on pitch encroachment to be more vigorously enforced.
Meanwhile, details of Dublin's semi-final in the competition against Meath were revised yesterday after it was initially announced that the match would go ahead next Tuesday evening in Parnell Park under floodlights. This had been on the basis Meath had a playing commitment at the weekend, but that turned out not to be the case and the match goes ahead at the same venue next Sunday at three o'clock.
Concerns about the state of the Parnell Park pitch, which was recently resodded after hosting 368 matches last year, were allayed by the Dublin County Board.
In hurling, Tipperary have named an experimental team to play Limerick in the quarter-final of the Waterford Crystal Cup competition on Sunday in the Limerick Gaelic Grounds. Included are just four of the side which lost to Galway in last year's All-Ireland quarter-final.
A number of the current panel are unavailable for this competition because of their involvement with the third-level colleges, while Eoin Kelly, Paul Kelly, Eamonn Corcoran and Philip Maher are travelling to Singapore this week with the All Stars.
The All Stars tour also deprives Limerick manager Joe McKenna of two players for Sunday's game. The Moran brothers, Niall and Olly, have been called up as late replacements.
Limerick football manager Mickey Ned O'Sullivan is resigned to losing the last of his dual players, with Stephen Lucey having opted to play for the hurlers against Waterford at the weekend. It means all the county's dual players have decided to concentrate on hurling only in 2006.
TIPPERARY (SH v Limerick): D Young; E Buckley, S McDermott, P Curran; D McGrath, J Devane, L England; B Dunne, N Curran; K Tucker, C Morrissey, J Enright; S Butler, P O'Brien, P Kerwick.
