Clifford benefits from 2018 change to lift trophy for Fossa

A motion passed in 2018 allowed Fossa’s Paudie Clifford to accept the All-Ireland club junior football trophy at Croke Park on Sunday.

Clifford, who was sent off on a straight red card in injury-time of Fossa’s All-Ireland club junior football final victory over Stewartstown, afterwards walked up the steps of the Hogan Stand to raise the Corn Seamróga Chraobh Mháirtín.

It caused a certain amount of confusion on social media as some raised questions regarding a regulation that prevented red-carded players from taking part in the post-match presentation.

But that rule was abolished at Congress in 2018, when 89 per cent of delegates supported a motion put forward by the Down County Board to remove it from the GAA Official Guide.

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The rule had read: “A player who stands suspended as a consequence of being ordered off during a final, shall not participate in the after match presentation ceremony”.

However, since the motion was passed in 2018, that regulation has been deleted and so Clifford was free to accept the trophy on Sunday.

GAA disciplinary chiefs are awaiting the referee’s report to see what action will be taken with regards to the unseemly scenes in the closing stages of Sunday’s game. A total of six players were sent off during the encounter – four from Tyrone club Stewartstown and two from Fossa.

In his acceptance speech, Paudie questioned why he was sent off – though TV replays did appear to show him putting his hand on the face of Stewartstown’s Gerard O’Neill.

David Clifford was sent off on two yellow cards and while Paudie’s sending off was on a straight red, a likely category three offence would see him pick up a one-match suspension ‘in the same code and at the same level’.

Either way, the Clifford brothers are expected to be given some downtime now before Kerry manager Jack O’Connor calls them in for National League action.

Kerry’s dominance of both the junior and intermediate club football championships has led to questions over the balance being skewed in favour of teams from the Kingdom due to the club structures.

Kerry only have eight senior clubs, which naturally has an impact on the standard of teams in intermediate and junior with the clubs emerging from the Kingdom usually stronger than those from other counties who have a greater number of senior clubs and so a weaker pool at intermediate and junior.

There have been 11 Kerry winners of the All-Ireland junior championship. The closest counties behind Kerry are Galway, Tyrone and Meath – who have all had two clubs win the competition.

In the intermediate grade, Kerry clubs have won it seven times with Tyrone next on three. Already, it wouldn’t be an outlandish statement to suggest Austin Stacks, having been relegated from the senior ranks in Kerry, should win the All-Ireland intermediate title next year.

“We haven’t looked at it yet, we haven’t looked at it nationally,” said GAA president Larry McCarthy.

“But when you look at the dominance of the Kerry teams in terms of clubs and results over the years, perhaps it is something we will look at.

“But then at the same time it’s a function of the county structures as much as anything else, rather than being a national issue. To a certain extent when it comes to All-Ireland semi-finals and finals it is a national issue, but it’s a club structure within the county that delivers those teams to us and whether we want to interfere with that in any way, I’m not sure that would be a good thing.”