St Brigid's desired rematch gets ruled out

Dublin Club SFC: The Dublin County Board have ruled out replaying the club championship match between Kilmacud Crokes and St Brigid's, despite an objection from the latter regarding the legality of Crokes fielding intercounty forward Mark Vaughan.

Vaughan had a significant impact in the one-point victory last Friday by kicking six points and setting up the game's only goal.

The player had a one-match ban, handed down by the Leinster Council after receiving a straight red card last year against Portlaoise, rescinded hours before the game by the newly formed disputes resolution authority (DRA).

St Brigid's are now questioning the validity of this decision on the grounds that the DRA wasn't formally established.

"The objection is based on two grounds," explained St Brigid's chairman Ronan Barrett.

"Firstly, Kilmacud played an illegal player under Dublin, Leinster and Central Council rulings. Secondly, we want to ensure the DRA has been properly constituted.

"We feel a duty of care as the first club effected to test the DRA and see if the correct procedures were in place before they made this decision."

The DRA was set up at congress, but it was the Central Council meeting last Saturday that put the structures in place.

All parties involved in last week's hearing agreed to be bound by whatever decision was reached. The parties (Vaughan, Kilmacud Crokes, the Dublin County Board, the Leinster Council and the GAA) were either present or represented at the hearing.

The ideal outcome for St Brigid's would be a replay, but Dublin County Board secretary John Costello ruled out such an outcome ahead of this week's management meeting, which will set a date to hear the complaint before the next round of the club championship commences.

"It all seemed very rushed to us," continued Barrett.

"We had no grounds to get involved and had no idea what was happening. Now, we are merely testing the machinery to see if it is working."

It is conceivable that St Brigid's could find themselves in front of another DRA panel before this matter runs its course. The next step is the Leinster Council, then the equally new central appeals committee (CAC) before landing at the DRA's doorstep.

Meanwhile, last night, three second-half points from Ciarán Farrelly inspired Thomas Davis to a six-point (1-10 to 1-4) victory in their Dublin SFC first-round clash with Erin's Isle at O'Toole Park.

Erin's Isle - who trailed by just one point at the break - managed just one more score in the second period, but were denied a goal at the end when Kieran Walsh went down superbly to his right to deny Niall Crossan, who was Erin's Isle top score of the night.

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