Quartet may face review of incidents

A NUMBER of players will be waiting apprehensively to see if the Central Competitions Control Committee deem necessary a follow-up to the weekend’s matches. The GAA’s disciplinary watchdog will have been processing footage from a busy programme to see if they wish referees to review particular incidents.

If they believe a referee hasn’t had a clear view of what happened he can be asked to review video evidence and give his opinion on whether the matter should be taken further.

In that case, any player can refuse a proposed suspension and opt for a hearing.

Particularly anxious will be Kerry manager Jack O’Connor, whose invaluable wing back Tomás Ó Sé was involved in three incidents during the win over Limerick that appeared to warrant intervention from the referee, two that conservatively merited yellow cards and a third that looked like a straight red.

The CCCC has no history of revisiting yellow card incidents, presumably because even two such cards, whereas they earn dismissal from the match, carry no suspension.

The third incident, where Ó Sé appears to elbow Stephen Kelly after the latter has scored, is, however, likely to be considered worthy of review.

Were anything to happen in this case, it would mean that both Kerry’s footballer of the year Paul Galvin and the nearest contender for the honour last year would miss the All-Ireland quarter-final in a few weeks’ time.

Ó Sé won’t be only one concerned by potential action from the CCCC.

Sligo veteran Eamonn O’Hara was captured on camera, apparently stamping on Galway’s Eoin Concannon during the first half of Saturday’s Connacht semi-final replay, which Sligo won to set up the first provincial final since 1947 not to feature either Galway or Mayo.

The committee will also have had some hurling footage to study.

On Sunday All-Ireland champions Kilkenny retained their Leinster title and in the 45th minute one of their forwards, Eddie Brennan, was yellow-carded, presumably for interfering with the protective helmet of Galway’s Ollie Canning, but in the same incident he also seems to pull the hurl on his opponent, which is a red-card infraction.

Surprisingly, grabbing and shaking an opponent’s protective headgear is considered only a yellow-card offence despite being quite dangerous.

A similar incident took place in Thurles on Saturday near the start of the Tipperary-Wexford AllIreland qualifier.

Tipperary full back Declan Fanning was involved in an altercation with Wexford’s Stephen Banville during which the latter appears to strike with the hurl before swinging out of Fanning’s helmet after which the Tipperary player required 25 stitches.

None of the above potential red-card infractions were dealt with by the match referees and are eligible to be revisited, should the CCCC so decide.