McCague moves to stop O Se repeat

GAA president Seán McCague yesterday issued a ruling that leaves no room for interpretation of referees' reports by county boards dealing with cases of players dismissed from matches with straight red cards.

After studying documentation he had requested from a number of recent cases under review - including, it can be assumed, the referee's report from the Kerry championship game in which county captain Darragh Ó Sé was sent off - McCague confirmed that he was not in a position to take any further action in respect of those cases.

"In the instances under review, respective referees' reports were inconsistent with the application of a straight red card and the content of the reports indicated that the recipients should have been cautioned or should have been recipients of a yellow card only," reads the statement.

While that de facto admission from the officials that they made a wrong call renders higher authorities impotent from moving to reverse the decisions, they did prompt the president to rule that all future such cases must follow a precedent that closes all passages for equivocation in relation to the red card rule.

"In future cases," reads McCague's statement, "the association must revert to a previous 1993 Central Council decision whereby a straight sending off of a player following receipt of a straight red card automatically merited a minimum of a four-week suspension, irrespective of the content of the referee's report."

It is also stated that the only mechanism that could, in future, influence the minimum penalty of a straight red card at a disciplinary hearing or appeal in future will the use of "authentic video evidence".

The statement also notes that on Saturday last, Central Council gave authority to disciplinary bodies to use authentic video evidence to charge individuals with transgressions of rules when it is considered that they were not adequately dealt with by the referee.

The ruling finally ends the long-running saga involving Kerry captain Ó Sé, who was cleared by the Kerry board after receiving a straight red card while playing for An Gaeltacht against Austin Stacks. The decision was criticised both within the county and in general GAA circles.

The incident was regarded as a high-profile example of a worrying trend prevalent in disciplinary administrative procedures at county level, with committees apparently willing to gloss over local indiscretions to facilitate players involved on county teams.

It is ironic that this problem has arisen under McCague's tenure as president as he has a long-standing reputation for being against any leniency or ambivalence in the application of punishments for on-field indiscipline. The controversy that the Ó Sé case generated prompted him to call for documentation relating to a number of rulings of that nature, which he studied prior to yesterday's announcement.

Speaking before yesterday's statement from Croke Park was released, Kerry County Board chairman Seán Walsh predicted he was certain that there was "nothing to fear".

"We are happy that we were perfectly above board in our actions and can stand over them," he said.

He added that the fact that the Kerry team will not be named until this evening - a departure from the custom of naming the side on Wednesday - had nothing to do with the controversy surrounding the captain.

Meanwhile, Kerry referees have requested a meeting with Walsh to clarify respective positions in the wake of the incident involving Ó Sé. However, this will not take place until after Sunday's tie against Cork.