The Central Competitions Control Committee of the GAA are looking into incidents in last Saturday's Leinster hurling replay between Dublin and Wexford in Parnell Park. One player, Wexford's Andrew Shore, was red-carded for pulling across the head of Dublin's Ryan O'Dwyer and faces suspension but other serious fouls did not incur a similar punishment.
Dublin’s Conor McCormack was seen jabbing Shore with a broken hurl and Wexford’s Garett Sinnott pulled across the head of opposing full back Peter Kelly. There were also a number of brawls.
Ironically, Sinnott will probably escape further sanction as the referee Brian Gavin showed him a yellow card and once the referee has taken action, even mistakenly, the incident is taken as closed.
Qualifier action
Both teams are in actions in the coming days. Wexford are due to play Antrim on Saturday in the hurling qualifiers and Dublin take on Kilkenny on Sunday in the Leinster championship so any further action against the players will be taken in time for the weekend.
Speaking on the Sunday Game, Offaly All-Ireland winner and RTÉ analyst Michael Duignan was scathing in his criticism. "I love hurling, and hard hurling and tough hurling," he said, "and I've great time for Wexford hurling and the fellas I played in the 1980s and '90s but what I witnessed last night made me very, very angry, particularly at the Wexford players, their attitude and ill-discipline.
“No-one has a right to go out in hurling and pull across another guy’s head and I saw several examples of it last night and I thought it was absolutely disgraceful. I was angry last night and I’m angry now.”
Another broadcast analyst, Wexford All-Ireland winner Tom Dempsey, yesterday took issue with Duignan’s comments.
Blame game
"I feel that laying the blame on one side completely, instead of a little bit on both, is unfair. It was unseemly and that's the bottom line, but Andrew Shore is not a dirty player, in fairness to him, and I hope amidst the furore that he's not made a scapegoat. There were a couple of extenuating circumstances.
“He may have got a bit of a shot himself before that and the blood was up.
“There was a strong sun but when you pull off the ball, the referee has every right to send you off. I’m not arguing with that but I thought in the melee that followed, one or two other players were lucky to stay on the field. There were a couple of things that happened in that row.”
Finally it emerged yesterday that there will be no further action taken in respect of incidents in last February’s All-Ireland intermediate final won by Tyrone club Fr Rocks of Cookstown against Kerry champions Finuge. Having investigated claims from both sides the CCCC determined that due to lack of evidence, the matter had been closed.
