Ó hAilpín gets four-game ban as furore eases

AUSTRALIAN RULES:SETANTA Ó hAILPÍN'S AFL career appears to be safe after the former Cork hurler received a four-game suspension from a match review panel for striking and then kicking Carlton Blues team-mate Cameron Cloke in last Friday's intra-club trial.

Ó hAilpín apologised to Cloke, who accepted that, but a club decision concerning the final year of his contract will be announced later this week. Senior players, coach Brett Ratten, football manager Steven Icke and chief executive Greg Swann will meet Ó hAilpín and agent Michael Quinlan over the coming days.

The initial anti-Gaelic Games sentiment (one commentator described Ó hAilpín’s former sport as “curling” and wasn’t perturbed when corrected) evident in the Australian media in the immediate aftermath of the incident appears to have died down, but double standards remain prevalent in the AFL.

Collingwood captain Nick Maxwell, a player with priors, will receive a three-game ban if he pleads guilty to fracturing the jaw of West Coast Eagles player Patrick McGinnity. That Ó hAilpín has only made 46 senior appearances in five, injury-disrupted, seasons seemingly gave credence to some facets of the media calling for his outright dismissal.

However, Jake Niall, senior sports writer with The Age newspaper, noted the difficulties of cancelling the remaining year of the 25-year-old’s contract: “Clubs have few avenues for terminating a player’s contract. They can argue that a player such as Ó hAilpín has brought the club or the game into disrepute (as in the Ben Cousins example).

“They can argue that there has been a breach of contract, or point to a criminal act. In Ó hAilpín’s case, there has been no breach of contract, nor any criminal act, and it seems unlikely that a case could be mounted that he has brought the club into disrepute.”

Ó hAilpín must undergo an anger management course with the Carlton sports psychologist and can have no contact with the squad, at least until a final decision on his future is reached.

Instead, he will work with a personal trainer and feeder club the Northern Bullants, whose coach David Teague, has already defended the actions of a player he helped shape into an Aussie Rules footballer after his arrival from Ireland in 2003.

“It’s completely out of character for him,” Teague said. “Normally, he’s one of the nicest blokes you’ll ever meet and one of the most dedicated blokes at training.

“I think all of the blokes at our club would definitely welcome him and would be excited to help him get back on the horse again. He’s taken a while to develop, which was expected, but if he has to play with us then we’d definitely welcome him at our club because he’s a good VFL player and we’d be hoping to get him back to senior football.”

The relatively small suspension appears to come down to extenuating circumstances – an early guilty plea and previously clean record.

Sources report he was allegedly struck twice, off camera, by Cloke.

There may also have been bad blood between the pair after Ó hAilpín clashed with Cloke’s brother, Travis, when the Blues played Collingwood last season.