GAELIC GAMES NEWS ROUND-UP:GAA PRESIDENT Christy Cooney has defended the right of the Central Hearings Committee to impose stiffer punishments than initially proposed by the Central Competitions Control Committee.
The issue has come into focus after recent decisions handed down by the CHC. At its most recent meeting last Friday night, the committee handed Kerry club Dromid Pearses a three-year ban from provincial and All-Ireland competition – having two weeks ago banned their opponents in the controversial All-Ireland junior football semi-final in Portlaoise last month, Derrytresk, for five years.
Neither of these bans had been proposed by the CCCC.
In the wake of a half-time brawl at the recent league football encounter between Monaghan and Kildare, the CHC replaced a suggested fine of €5,000 with a stipulation that Monaghan play their next scheduled home match in the league away. This means that the match against Louth on March 11th, listed for a Monaghan venue, will now be played in Louth.
According to a statement from the Monaghan GAA, the punishment will be appealed to the Central Appeals Committee and Dromid are expected to follow the same course.
Asked at Croke Park yesterday why the CHC was imposing different punishments to those originally proposed by the CCCC, Cooney said that he backed the former’s decision. “Absolutely. Based on the evidence presented to them in their review of the case, they made a decision that they felt was appropriate. We have to get rid of so-called melees or major situations when all the players are getting involved in major fracases during games.
“We’re sending out the wrong message and the wrong signal and it’s bad for the image of the association, so I think they’ve taken a course of action and I support fully the course of action that they’ve taken. Hearings (CHC) actually make the decision with regards to suspension. Hearings don’t know the (CCCC-proposed) punishment or they’re not supposed to know the punishment so they hear the case. They (the parties) come and fight their case and then hearings make a decision with regards to the punishment.”
He rejected the charge that this amounted to two bodies coming to separate conclusions. “No, it’s not. The only body that makes decision is hearings. Hearings make the decision. What the CCCC do is say to the county or individuals: ‘This is what your punishment is likely to be. Are you prepared to accept that and move on?’ They don’t have to do that. They have a right to go to hearings and have their case heard and then for hearings to make a decision on what they consider is the most appropriate punishment. That’s what happens. Hearings make decisions, not the CCCC.”
Commenting on the recent recommendations in the final report of the National Substance Misuse Strategy Steering Group that alcohol sponsorship of sport be ended, the president said that he believed legislation would eventually be introduced to prohibit it.
“I think it will eventually come to a situation where Government policy is going to be that drink companies shouldn’t sponsor sporting events. I think it might come to that – it may take a bit of time, but I think it will happen in the next few years. That’s a personal view and not a GAA view.
“I’m not too sure that the blame can be laid at the doors of the sporting organisation for the volume of drink that any person consumes. I’m not sure how much it influences and I’m not even sure is there any research done to say that it does or it doesn’t. Guinness have been good to us as an association, the brand has been good for us in the way that they have promoted our games and they have done it very tactfully and very tastefully.
“They are the only drink sponsorship that we have in our association and in time that may change. Guinness may decide that they no longer wish to be involved, or there may come a time when we want to move away from alcohol support for our games.”
In response to a suggestion that the GAA could be more pro-active, he said the association would be very happy to engage with the Government on the issue.
The president was also asked about revelations in the Examiner newspaper that former Cork footballer Diarmuid Duggan had been left seriously out of pocket by an operation on a hip injury, which ended his playing career. Cooney was asked how serious an issue he felt the matter was and replied: “I don’t think it’s a serious issue at all. I don’t have the full facts of the case but my understanding is that Diarmuid Duggan had an operation sometime in 2008 and the county board fully funded that operation and paid close to €5,000. Something developed after that and I know an application came before us for some funding from our benevolent fund and, as you know, we fund the GPA’s funding and the GPA look after the benefits for intercounty players and there was a case made to the GPA and they gave a grant of €3,000. That’s as much as I know about the situation.”
The central problem is believed to be that a second operation performed in England in 2010 at a cost of nearly €10,000 is not covered by the GAA insurance policy and although the GPA contributed €3,000, the player is out of pocket for the rest. The affair has already been a PR disaster for Cork.
