Hanratty may be out for a year

Armagh full back Colm Hanratty's broken leg was the most vivid image of another wild couple of days on GAA playing fields which saw nine players sent off in four of the weekend's major fixtures.

Four got the line in the Armagh-Donegal NFL match at Lurgan and three in the Leinster club football semi-final in Navan between Wicklow champions Rathnew and their Meath counterparts Navan O'Mahony's.

One player was also dismissed in the Abbey Duniry-Clarinbridge Galway hurling semi-final and All-Ireland champions Kerry lost Eamonn Breen to a second bookable offence in their defeat by Offaly.

In the aftermath of Sunday's scabrous events in Lurgan, Armagh joint-manager Pat Canavan has spoken about the circumstances surrounding the dreadful injury to Hanratty who was carried off at the start of the second half following a collision with Donegal's Shane Bradley, whose challenge was judged sufficiently reckless to warrant dismissal.

He was subsequently followed by his team-mate Martin Coll and opponent Cathal O'Rourke, sent off together, and later a second Armagh player Kieran McGeeney.

"Colm's leg was broken in three places," says Canavan. "You can't say at this stage but I would be afraid that he'll be out for 12 months. He's a surgeon so probably from a career point of view, it's also set him back on his heels."

Even allowing for the importance of the fixture to both sides who went into the match on full points and the fact that it was an all-Ulster clash, the occasion appears to have been fairly nasty for an NFL match in November.

"It wasn't really," says Canavan. "Conditions made it what it turned into. The pitch cut up and there was a wind blowing although both sides were happy to play before the start. After the collision, you could hear the crack all around the ground and there was great anger about the incident.

"Looking at it on TV, I would say it was a bad pass Colm got. If it had been good, the whole thing would never have happened. He'd have already gone by the man by the time the Donegal fella arrived. At first, I thought the two of them had broken their legs."

Canavan isn't inclined to attach too much blame to Bradley's challenge. "It was slightly hard but I'd have gone for the ball myself. I was talking to Declan Bonner afterwards and he said that he (Bradley) was not a malicious type of player and I've seen a lot worse challenges. But for the point of contact, the injury mightn't have been so bad. The challenge wasn't good either but I don't think he intended to do damage.

"Anger got into the game because of what happened. Players lost their cool and would't stand back. Another row started and more were sent off."

Canavan was irritated by one incident when Brian Murray was introduced as a substitute but the player he was replacing didn't leave immediately.

"One thing that stood out and had nothing to do with the injury was that they played an extra man for a number of minutes. I noticed they had 14 players on the pitch and brought it to the attention of a linesman. There weren't enough officials and the linesmen were one from Armagh and one from Donegal.

"Unfortunately the one I told was from Donegal and he ignored me for a while before shouting at their bench that they'd too many on. It's the first time I'd seen linesmen from the counties involved. At one stage the referee got a slap of the ball and you'd wonder what they would have done if he hadn't been able to continue.

"I know referees have a job to do. To be fair to him, he sent men off and they deserved to be sent off. The match had a bit of bite in it and the whole thing built up. Even Jarlath Burns was angry and I've never seen him angry."

No one from the Games Administration Committee was available to comment on the lack of linesmen in Lurgan. Finally, Canavan indicated that Armagh would be leaving the Hanratty injury to the referee's report and would not be pursuing the matter separately.