O'Mahony drug case hearing adjourned until next month

THE AIDAN O'MAHONY positive drugs case for salbutamol was adjourned on Wednesday night to allow further submissions to be heard at the next sitting in January.

The GAA anti-doping committee chairman, Adrian Coulter QC, placed a gagging order on all relevant parties so information is scarce from the hearing that concluded after 1am on Thursday morning. There were plenty of "difficult, technical, highbrow medical details" presented by the O'Mahony defence under solicitor Packie Derham and the GAA presented several medical experts.

Coulter is joined on a three-man committee by former Dublin football manager Dr Pat O'Neill and Seán McHale, while the Irish Sports Council were represented, without any direct involvement in proceedings.

O'Mahony tested positive for the banned drug after Kerry's All-Ireland final defeat to Tyrone on September 21st.

"It went on for quite some time last night and will reconvene in January, that's the situation at present," said Kerry county board chairman Jerome Conway. "We would have preferred to have wrapped it up quickly but there are some procedural issues to be dealt with."

The crucial aspect of the case is what levels of salbutamol were discovered in O'Mahony's A and B samples. This is apparently available, just not for public consumption. A registered asthmatic with the Irish Sports Council, O'Mahony is permitted to use an inhaler that contains salbutamol but the drug is considered to be anabolic at greater than 1,000 nanograms per millilitre in the urine.

The next hearing is expected to take place in early January. Derham has experience in a similar case involving Munster and Ireland rugby player Frankie Sheahan in 2003 when he also tested positive for salbutamol. The initial two-year suspension was quashed on appeal and a three-month ban was subsequently handed to Sheahan for failure to comply with the notification requirements for his medication. This will not be the case with O'Mahony.

"We will be defending the charge putting forward the defence that Aidan is a diagnosed asthmatic and had a therapeutic use exemption for inhaled salbutamol," Derham stated before the Wednesday hearing.

Derham has a respected sporting pedigree. As well as having played hooker for Munster, including the 1982 victory over Australia when he was a try-scorer, he coached Cork Constitution alongside Michael Bradley to All-Ireland League success in 1999.

Meanwhile, the Na Piarsaigh club responded to comments by Fr Bernie Cotter on John Gardiner and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín in his homily before the Cork county convention. Identifying the Cork wing backs for being primarily at fault in the All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kilkenny because of the impact of Eddie Brennan and Eoin Larkin, Fr Cotter stated: "Where was our vaunted half-back line on that occasion?"

Both players are members of the city club and Na Piarsaigh replied through their chairman, Michael Ó Huigin, yesterday: "We were shocked and appalled at the comments made by Fr Bernie Cotter, which we feel were directed at two of our most outstanding players. Though he did not name them, it was obvious to all the players in question were John Gardiner and Seán Óg Ó hAilpín. We wish to remind the Reverend Father of the outstanding contribution made by the two players to Cork's cause."

Considering hurling manager Gerald McCarthy has just made a move to entice the 2008 panel back into the fold, Na Piarsaigh saw the priest's comments as highly inflammatory and expected the county executive to denounce them. "At a sensitive time when sides should be brought together harmoniously these comments were unwarranted and unhelpful. We would request in the interest of fairness that the Cork County Board executive should disassociate itself from such comments."