Kildare vow to fight case to the last

Gaelic Games Championship 2006 newsThe GAA's Central Council is facing increasing pressure to resolve the substitution controversy surrounding last Sunday's Leinster football championship quarter-final between Offaly and Kildare. Yesterday the Kildare County Board issued a statement (see panel) which clearly indicates their intention to appeal the matter to the highest authorities unless Central Council rule that Offaly somehow breached the substitution rule.

While the ambiguity continues over Offaly's apparent use of six substitutes - one more than permitted - all eyes now fall on Saturday's meeting of Central Council, who must ultimately interpret the substitutions rule.

Offaly still insist they have done nothing wrong, have won the game, and therefore refuse to speculate on any potential outcome. So for now everything is on hold until Central Council give their interpretation back to the Leinster Council, who must then decide what to do about the fixture.

The Kildare statement, however, at least makes one side of the story clear. The board held a meeting on Tuesday night to further examine the implications of the matter, and according to county secretary Kathleen O'Neill, they intend to see justice being done.

"We called a management and county board meeting for last night," she explained, "and basically we agreed to wait until after Saturday's meeting of Central Council before deciding what to do next. We discussed the various options, but we would hope and feel that Central Council will make the right decision, and I suppose we were prepared to trust them.

"But there was also a unanimous decision of our county board than Offaly had inadvertently used six subs. Because of that, we were also confident that Central Council would apply the letter of the law, like they had done against us a few years ago."

More importantly, however, the county board also agreed to pursue the matter further if necessary.

"We were given a clear mandate from the delegates that if Central Council were to decide Offaly weren't guilty of anything, and only used five subs, then we would go to the DRA (Disputes Resolution Authority), or ultimately the highest authority that we need to go to. That mandate has already been given to us, but it's all hypothetical at the moment. We'll just have to await the result of Saturday's meeting, when everything should be a lot clearer to everyone involved.

"There has been talk of a replay, but the main thing that we talked about was that Offaly won the match, and there would be no intention to take that win from them. But if they broke a rule we have no say in the decision on what should happen next.

"So first of all we have to wait until Central Council decide whether or not they did make an error. That then goes back to the Leinster Council to decide what happens next. Until such a time as there is something on the table, we haven't discussed in detail what the best outcome would be."

The task facing the Central Council was underlined on Monday night when the Leinster Council couldn't reach an agreement and decided to refer the matter to them, who have the final authority to interpret GAA rules. The GAA's Management Committee also meet tomorrow and may be asked for their stance and legal advice on the matter ahead of Saturday's meeting.

The controversy stems from Offaly's use of a blood substitution, with Pascal Kellaghan being temporarily replaced by James Coughlan in the first half. Kellaghan came back on to the field at the start of the second half, as is permitted, but instead of Coughlan he replaced Trevor Phelan - which is not permitted. He also failed to get the necessary clearance from the linesman. Given Offaly used their full allocation of five substitutes, it appears some breach of the rule is a foregone conclusion.

Offaly, however, claim that both the fourth official and standby linesman gave them the go-ahead to use their final substitute - although in previous cases the team has had ultimately to bear the responsibility.