St Brigid's lodge an objection to defeat

News round-up: The St Brigid's club has lodged an objection to its defeat by Kilmacud Crokes in the Dublin county championship at the weekend. The decision highlights what has been a controversial start for the GAA's new disputes resolution authority (DRA).

The objection, confirmed last night by the Dublin County Board, is based on the claimed ineligibility of Kilmacud player Mark Vaughan who was cleared by the DRA to play against St Brigid's on Friday morning, the day of the match. As it turned out Vaughan was instrumental in his side's narrow win.

The background to this case concerns a red card picked up by the player in last year's Leinster club championship semi-final against Portlaoise. Consequently Vaughan received a suspension of four weeks plus - given that his team had been knocked out - a one-match ban to apply to his next match in the competition.

According to GAA interpretation this suspension would have applied to the Dublin championship match but Kilmacud believed it should not apply until the next time the club was in the Leinster championship.

The club asked the Dublin board to seek a declaration from the provincial council and that confirmed Vaughan would miss the St Brigid's match.

Kilmacud then sought through the same channels to get Croke Park's view on the matter. Director general Liam Mulvihill replied that according to previous Central Council interpretation the Leinster Council was correct.

"Precedent isn't necessarily good law," according to Kilmacud's Martin Glynn. "The only laws are in the rule book and the rules are quite clear. Rule 111 concerns county championships and rule 114 concerns provincial and All-Ireland championships. In other words they are controlled by separate organisations.

"We were prepared to uphold this in the courts if necessary but we made informal inquiries to see if the new disputes procedure was available. It came into effect on the weekend before last."

The disputes resolution authority was established at last month's annual Congress as part of a new framework that included a central disciplinary committee (CDC) and central appeals committee (CAC). It is intended to be independent of the GAA and settle disputes that might otherwise end up in the courts. Parties who apply to the authority agree to abide by its findings.

Cases are heard by a tribunal of three drawn from a panel of 30 people, 15 of whom are qualified barristers, solicitors or arbitrators. Last week's hearing was the first time that the DRA had heard a dispute.

Initially there was a problem about who to join in the matter. First of all Leinster Council and the Dublin County Board were asked to attend as the body that had handed down the suspension and the body that would have to enforce it.

Leinster Council made the point that its suspension wasn't being challenged, only the means of its imposition so the tribunal, under the chair of barrister Micheál O'Connell, was adjourned for two days and met last Thursday with Croke Park joined in the action and represented by Leinster chair Liam O'Neill.

After a lengthy hearing and deliberation the tribunal issued a 72-point determination early on Friday morning upholding Kilmacud's argument and allowing Vaughan to play and serve his suspension in the Leinster championship.

The case is unique in that not alone is it the first to be heard by the DRA but that it also has been activated before the new disciplinary bodies. Article 2.1 (e) of the disputes resolution code states that claimants must confirm "all avenues of appeal under the Official Guide have been exhausted".

Since neither the CDC nor the CAC had been constituted, the avenues of appeal referred to the old structures but even allowing for that the case didn't concern a disciplinary dispute, as Kilmacud weren't taking issue with the suspension. But the DRA agreed to hear the case providing the parties involved would accept its decision.

That decision will have to be taken into account by the Dublin County Board when it decides on the St Brigid's objection. It's not yet known the precise terms of the objection given that the club had no locus standi in the original dispute.

Although the Dublin championship won't be going anywhere for at least four weeks because of the upcoming Leinster championship match against Meath it is believed the county board will deal with the matter within the next week.