Vaughan still available to Dublin, despite Crokes being thrown out

Dublin/Football: Mark Vaughan will be available to the Dublin football selectors for tomorrow's Leinster final if he is required.

The Kilmacud Crokes player is at the centre of a playing eligibility row that saw his club put out of the Dublin football championship late on Thursday night after the successful appeal of St Brigid's against Vaughan's appearance in last month's first round, which Kilmacud won.

It had been feared that Vaughan, a match winner against Meath, but on the bench for tomorrow, might be liable to a suspension for playing while subject to a ban.

However, Leinster Council secretary Michael Delaney said yesterday they had cleared the player after seeking a presidential ruling from GAA president Seán Kelly.

"The president's ruling was that a player couldn't stand suspended until he had been charged and given an opportunity to defend himself," said Delaney.

In fact, it's doubtful if Vaughan will be suspended at all given that he had been cleared to play in the St Brigid's match by the GAA's new arbitration panel, the Disputes Resolution Authority, on the grounds that he didn't have to serve a suspension picked up in last year's Leinster championship until the next time Kilmacud qualify for the provincial championship.

This interpretation ran counter to other precedents, which had always treated club and county championships as extensions of each other for the purposes of serving suspension.

In the meantime, it has emerged that the current GAA rulebook is flawed on the subject because a motion successfully brought to the 1996 congress and relevant to the situation had been incorrectly incorporated into the Official Guide.

Consequently, the DRA was working off flawed information.

The matter is unlikely to end here. It is up to the Dublin County Board - which initially turned down the St Brigid's appeal and was the respondent on Thursday night - to appeal the decision to the GAA's Central Appeals Committee and it is assumed they will do so, though by last night there was no confirmation from the board that this would be the case.

Kilmacud Crokes did indicate, however, that they were hoping the county board would appeal what is effectively the club's case.

It is likely that the matter will end up back with the DRA, who can appoint a different committee to hear the case again, this time with the correct rules to hand.