GAA to remove anomaly in rule on extra-time

ACCORDING TO Croke Park sources there is likely to be little change to the provisions for playing extra-time in certain club competitions despite a ruling of the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) last week. Central Council is expected to address the matter at its next meeting and regularise the relevant procedures.

The case, which centred on a Galway under-21 match between Gort and Craughwell, concerned a player, Sylvie Óg Linnane (son of the 1980s All-Ireland winner), who played in extra-time while under suspension and successfully argued that the period was null and void because rule 3.4 of the GAA playing rules states that the additional time can be played only with the consent of the teams and can’t be mandatory.

This would, however, be of limited application as the main instances of extra-time, at intercounty and All-Ireland club level, are all exempted from the rule in an amendment – rule 3.5 – that came into force this January.

The club competitions still affected by the ruling, most relevantly under-21 county championships, are unlikely to be organised any differently this year, as Central Council will move to address the anomaly, presumably by removing the concept of consent.

As the governing body of the association between congresses, Central Council is entitled to respond to a DRA decision by devising what might termed a sticking plaster solution – as long as that is incorporated into rule at next year’s congress.

An interesting aspect of the DRA ruling was that it put to bed for once and for all the long-cherished GAA myth that extra-time continues to constitute a “new match” for the purposes of suspended players.

“In relation to the specific issue as to whether or not extra-time constitutes a new game,” according to the decision, “it is the unanimous decision of this tribunal that extra-time is not a new game but is a continuation under rule of the drawn game. Therefore a person who is suspended for a match which ends in a draw is not entitled to play in extra-time.”

Damien Burke will captain the Galway football team in the championship. Burke (25), who made his senior debut under John O’Mahony in 2004, was nominated by Corofin to skipper the side – in Galway, the county champions select the captain.

Galway open their championship campaign against London in Ruislip on May 24th.