Brennan stands over disciplinary process and rejects 'bias' charge

GAA president Nickey Brennan yesterday defended the association's handling of the recent Cork suspensions. While stating he did not wish to get involved in "a slagging match with players or managers", the president outlined the procedures surrounding the suspension of Cork hurlers Donal Cusack, Diarmuid O'Sullivan and Seán Ó hAilpín.

The president was speaking at a media conference yesterday in Croke Park to expand on the statement from Saturday's special Central Council meeting on discipline and clarify related issues.

There had been criticism from the players and their manager, Gerald McCarthy, who also said Brennan had hung up on him during a phone call about the matter, that they had been on their way to an appeal when it was called off and that they had not received fair process.

Brennan said that on the day in question Cork had not lodged an appeal until 1.20pm and that the Central Hearings Committee had not been in a position to prepare their case in defence of the suspensions for a meeting that evening.

He also said no one in Croke Park had informed the players that any meeting would take place in Portlaoise, as that would have contravened accepted protocol.

"Our representatives did indicate to Cork county board the situation," he said. "We know that the county board representatives had not left Cork. Now our sole communication process in any appeal is between ourselves here and the Cork county board office. We don't deal directly with players in relation to this matter.

"I was in London on official business that day - launching the official history of the GAA in Britain - and I was going to the Irish embassy in London when I got a phone call from Gerald McCarthy.

"Now the president of the GAA - and forget about who it is; I just happen to be the president at the moment - cannot be expected to be available to take such calls as I received and also to be up to date on every matter in our association every minute of every day.

"I realised Gerald McCarthy was angry by the tone of what he was saying, but I could not involve myself in a case that was currently in due process. As I said earlier we (president and director general) have no hand, act or part in the disciplinary process."

He added that Cork had been offered an appeal on Thursday night, but had not been in a position to accept that so the matter ran until Friday, two days before the Munster semi-final with Waterford.

"It has been said all along that people didn't get fair play in all of this. I would say that formal meetings probably took between 15 and 20 hours. That doesn't include preparation.

"This was extremely well carried out at all stages of the process. The full process to its fullest extent was used in these cases and I would say once again that all the parties involved were entitled to go through the process.

"There were comments made, particularly on The Sunday Game, that they didn't get fairness or due process.That's completely ridiculous and doesn't stand up to scrutiny at all."

He also said he wished to deny charges levelled by the Cork players last week, of bias: "I would like to state that there is no anti-GPA bias, no anti-Cork and no anti-Frank Murphy bias. I want to categorically refute that."

The president also defended the new disciplinary processes, which have been operational since January, pointing out that statistically, the new system had been successful, the vast majority of players accepting proposed suspensions and not opting for the inconvenience of hearings.

Since January there have two 12-week suspensions, which were accepted, nine eight-week suspensions, three of which went to a hearing, and 42 four-week suspensions, eight of which went to hearing. Five two-week suspensions were all accepted.

Sixty-seven "remainder of match" suspensions (ie, double-yellow-card dismissals) had been administered, only one of which was contested.

So out of a total of 125 proposed suspensions, 15 went to hearings, eight of which involved Cork and Clare, during which four suspensions were lifted.

"I'm absolutely defending the disciplinary process," said Brennan. "In some counties the Hearings Committee has been redundant since the beginning of the year."

He also added he was satisfied a number of high-profile incidents of indiscipline in local matches had all been dealt with appropriately under the new system, which is replicated at provincial and club level.

Asked whether the DRA decision in the case of Paddy Bradley (the Derry player whose suspension for abusing a referee was referred back to the county on the grounds a member of the original disciplinary committee was known to the referee in question) was overly restrictive in a locally based organisation like the GAA, Brennan replied that a protocol had been circulated to all units addressing the matter.

"The situation as regards the Paddy Bradley case is first of all, that the perception that Paddy Bradley won his case is not correct.

"The case was sent back to the Derry county board. Now I don't know if they're pursuing it further. The point at issue was that there was a perceived case of bias against one member of the panel.

"We have issued an instruction to our units to take an appropriate course of action at the start of these meetings - requesting if individuals feel they have any possible perceived bias, and the party coming into the hearing will also be asked if he or the unit perceives any bias by the members of the committee before which he's sitting, and in that case that will be duly recorded and in future that would not be able to be used in a case at arbitration."