SUSPENSIONS:The Ulster Council has handed out stiff suspensions and imposed heavy fines on the clubs involved in a brawl at the end of an Ulster club intermediate football championship game last month.
Four players - two each from Ballymacnab of Armagh and Tyrone's Stewartstown - were handed 36-week bans. And both clubs were fined €2,500 as a result of the post-match melee that marred the Ulster semi-final between the clubs.
The game ended in a draw, and will be replayed, now that the clubs have escaped dismissal from the competition.
Stewartstown's Anton Coyle and Tony Donnelly were suspended for 36 weeks, as were Ballymacnab's Philip McCone and Dwayne McParland. A total of 12 players, seven of them from Ballymacnab, were suspended.
Barry Bleeks of Stewartstown received a 24-week ban, with others receiving suspensions ranging from eight to 12 weeks.
Stewartstown fined €2,500
Anton Coyle 36 weeks
Tony Donnelly 36 weeks
Barry Bleeks 24 weeks
Ryan Small 8 weeks
Rory O'Neill 4 weeks
Ballymacnab fined 2,500
Philip McCone 36 weeks
Dwayne McParland 36 weeks
Stephen Kennedy 12 weeks
Christopher Kennedy 8 weeks
Paul Kennedy 8 weeks
Damien McGeown 8 weeks
Gary McKee 8 weeks
• DUBLIN v TYRONE:The GAA have announced that almost 10,000 tickets for the Dublin v Tyrone National Football League game at Croke Park on February 3rd have been sold in the past week. The game will be the first floodlit event to take place in Croke Park.
Tickets are on sale through the GAA and Ticketmaster websites, through Ticketmaster outlets nationwide and over the phone on 0818-719300 (Northern Ireland: 0870-2434455).
Tickets will also be available from the usual county board sources.
Tickets cost €15 for an adult stand ticket and €5 for juveniles. Terrace tickets cost €13. School and club groups can purchase tickets at €3 per juvenile with one adult free with every 10 juveniles directly from the GAA Ticket Office on 01-8658657.
There are no concessions available on the Hogan Stand or on the terraces - but juvenile and accompanying-adult tickets can be purchased for all other public areas in the ground.
• RULES SERIES:Harry Beitzel, the International Rules founder, has sent a Christmas message and wish to the GAA powerbrokers and AFL officials urging "peace" so the hybrid series can continue, writes Ahmer Khokharfrom Melbourne.
Beitzel is devastated both parties won't be meeting in Dubai in the new year, where he hoped the AFL would present some "gifts". Harry has even contributed by rewriting some of the controversial rules.
He wants the appointment of top Irish umpires to handle the matches for the next two years with one from the AFL observing, but with the power to report.
He wants the full back to start each quarter with a kick-in and would allow tackling from the back, but with no pushing in the back.
His labour of love, a book on football between Ireland and Australia from 1966 to 2006, commissioned by both the GAA and the AFL, is finished and he is hoping it will be published in the new year.
