Ryan incident won't be revisited

Gaelic Games News round-up: There are indications that the Games Administration Committee will take no further action against Limerick captain TJ Ryan in respect of the incident that earned him a yellow card in Sunday's Munster hurling championship defeat by Cork.

There was controversy about a 10th-minute altercation between Ryan and Jonathan O'Callaghan in which the former was seen to strike his opponent with the hurley. Consequent speculation has been that the GAC would revisit the matter by reviewing video evidence of the match.

One source on the committee has indicated that they are unlikely to intervene in the matter by over-ruling the yellow card and imposing the appropriate suspension, in this case 12 weeks for striking with the hurley.

"There isn't a procedure as such," he said. "We'll wait until we get the referee's report and after considering that it's up to GAC to take a view on whether they want to look into the matter any further.

"On one hand they don't wish to re-referee matches and it's not their inclination to go back over incidents unless the referee didn't have a proper view of the incident. In those situations the questions are: did he see it; did his team of officials see it; did he take action and what action did he take?"

The disinclination to review a referee's decision actually goes against the specific authority granted to GAC by Central Council to do just that. This has been a controversial area for the past four years.

In 2000, coincidentally in a Cork-Limerick championship match in Thurles, Diarmuid O'Sullivan pulled across Brian Begley's head and was given a yellow card by referee Aodán MacSuibhne. A proposal that GAC revisit the case and impose a suspension was defeated on the grounds that the referee had seen the incident and taken a decision.

A majority of the last GAC, chaired by Páraic Duffy, determined to crack down on foul play, persevered and was granted specific authority to use video evidence to review cases where the referee had failed to notice the incident or had noticed but had imposed an inappropriate sanction.

This current GAC has, however, regressed substantially on the matter. In several high-profile instances it has refused to over-rule referees, however obvious their undue leniency. Within weeks of taking office the committee failed to take action against Kilkenny and Tipperary players clearly seen committing fouls for which they were not adequately punished. But the fact that the referee had taken some action was enough to close the matter.

Two other high-profile cases followed the same pattern. Clare captain Seán McMahon was shown a red card after striking with the hurley in last year's championship match against Tipperary. Referee MacSuibhne only reported him for dangerous play, which carried a lighter four-week suspension rather than the 12 weeks as prescribed by the rule book.

Yet Tyrone footballer Gavin Devlin received a 12-week suspension for stamping on a Laois player in last year's National Football League final despite having been shown a yellow card.

The above GAC source revealed yesterday that contrary to public perception this was not a case of inconsistency. "In the Gavin Devlin case the referee saw an offence and issued a yellow card but it was a separate offence to the stamping, which he didn't see. So GAC weren't over-ruling the referee in that case."

This means that whereas Ryan may well be in the clear, any other players caught on camera committing offences that the referee did not see may well be in trouble. O'Callaghan, who was involved in the tangle with Ryan, wasn't carded and his part in the fracas could be reviewed, as could a wild pull by Limerick forward Andrew O'Shaughnessy.

The match was one of several at the weekend that provoked criticism of the match referee. Fr Séamus Gardiner, PRO of the National Referee's Committee, told The Irish Times yesterday that a new system of processing grievances is under consideration.

"We had a meeting recently with intercounty managers and John O'Mahony asked could we come up with some system whereby managers could vent specific complaints about refereeing in matches - instead of just telling the media afterwards that the ref is a disgrace. If that could be done it might make a difference.

"We're quite happy to talk to anyone who wants to discuss things with us. We've said that if panels of players would like to talk about refereeing issues we'd be willing to organise it. The more communication the better."

He went on to refer to the heightened pressures under which referees have to operate and expressed concern at the increasingly hostile environment that faces them. "I'm afraid that the morale of referees will be affected. In the past mistakes were made but nowadays television shows up the mistakes to a wide audience."