GAELIC GAMES: SEAN MORANsays lack of consistency in meting out punishment has to be addressed, but it can't become a veto on doing the right thing

AS DERRYTRESK and Dromid Pearses pondered their responses to the punishment proposed by the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee, the nature of breaking rules and its consequences have come into focus. Although neither had applied for a hearing by yesterday evening, it was fully expected that application will be received before tomorrow’s deadline.

Some of the public reaction, especially from the Derrytresk and Tyrone point of view, has been predictable and occurs whenever suspensions weaken a team going into an All-Ireland final at whatever level – let alone when, as recommended by the CCCC, the club is to be short eight players, four starters and four replacements.

It’s a recognisable narrative: plucky little club/individual being picked on for moments of uncharacteristic indiscipline and saddled with a punishment wholly out of proportion to the price of missing what could well be the once-in-a-lifetime chance to play on the biggest stage.

Then there are the extraneous grievances: the media, the fact this match was highlighted – despite the fact it was an All-Ireland semi-final and a rare instance of Croke Park having responsibility for a club fixture – and that Derrytresk are a soft target.

The problem with this is that rules apply to all matches, including All-Ireland semi-finals – a juncture at which even the least serious red-card offence will cost you at least a place in the final.

When former president Seán Kelly elevated the junior and intermediate championship so their current status with Croke Park finals, it was rightly acclaimed for giving a big day out to some of the smallest clubs and recognising their integral place within the GAA.

But they weren’t intended to come with a guaranteed indemnity against the consequences of indiscipline.

Of course the suspensions have a grossly disproportionate effect on the two clubs: one is in an All-Ireland final and the other isn’t.

But that underlines the need for discipline in semi-finals.

Similarly, expulsion for both clubs would have had an incalculably bigger impact on Derrytresk than on Dromid.

Aside from that, the reasons it doesn’t appear to have been on the agenda is that Clonbur, the Galway club who are also in the final, would have completely forfeited their big day out in Croke Park and also the relative lack of precedent for taking such severe action.

The clubs have until tomorrow to apply for a hearing and officials are confident that the disciplinary system will be well able to accommodate subsequent appeals and if it arises, arbitration before the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA).

It’s likely the hearings will take place at the beginning of next week, leaving adequate time for either team to take the matter further. To what effect is open to question.

Since the GAA reformed their disciplinary procedures – introducing the DRA and bringing in the CCCC as effectively a prosecuting service – in the middle of the last decade the number of successful handy challenges to suspensions has dropped significantly.

Of the disciplinary processes initiated at central level over the past year, none have gone any farther than the Central Hearings Committee; in other words whereas it’s not unusual for affected parties to opt for a hearing when the CCCC hands down its recommendation, once the case has been heard, no one has taken the matter to appeal.

The main reason for this is the tightening of procedures, which has meant that own goals have been largely eliminated from the process.

There is also less of a tendency to try to second guess what the DRA might do because the arbitration body has bedded in and now fulfils the function intended for it – to be an alternative to court.

With a body of precedent built up and available for perusal on the website, there is less of a sense of roulette about the process and less of an incentive to give the wheel a spin and see what comes up.

That consistency needs to be replicated in the imposition of punishment. Because of the proximity of the junior final, the current bans proposed have to be biting for Derrytresk, but in different circumstances they might not have been.

Fining clubs is presented as a bigger punishment at club level than it would be with vastly better resourced counties, but as a sanction it has the disadvantage of frequently not affecting those at the coalface of the misbehaviour and in some cases acting as a rallying point for sympathetic fund raising.

By constantly failing to impose punishments that deter the sort of indiscipline that was on view in Portlaoise and again on Wednesday in the Sigerson Cup match in Galway, the GAA encourages its repetition.

If there’s always a good reason not to intervene in events of this nature – and with community-based clubs and amateur players there’s always an emotive appeal about not taking action – they will keep happening.