The GAA are awaiting the report of referee Conor Lane before considering what to do about Sunday’s tunnel incident at half-time in the Connacht football final between Mayo and Galway at Croke Park. This is protocol, as he wouldn’t have seen the scenes, having already gone into the dressingroom at the time.
It will be up to the GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) to decide if what happened merits investigation. The key consideration in the past has been if there was any evidence of striking.
Television coverage gives a clear view of the pushing and shoving that took place, but there was no visible striking, and the sense is that the CCCC is unlikely to do much more than issue fines, if even that.
Last December there was a similar incident at the break in the Dublin-Mayo All-Ireland football final but no action was taken.
On Monday, the CCCC issued the fixtures for the coming weekend, which sees the two remaining provincial football finals as well as two All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals.
In Saturday’s hurling quarter-finals, Dublin face Cork in Thurles at 7pm, with Tipperary taking on Waterford in Cork’s Páirc Uí Chaoimh at 1.30pm.
The All-Ireland hurling semi-finals won’t now need a draw. If Tipperary beat Waterford they will play Kilkenny, as they have already played Limerick in the Munster final. If Waterford win, they play Kilkenny, as Cork too have played Limerick already.
Should Dublin win they would proceed to the Limerick semi-final, as they already played Kilkenny in the Leinster final.
The finals of the graded hurling championships also take place this weekend. Originally scheduled for Saturday, they will be spread over two days: the Meagher (Fermanagh-Cavan at 6.30pm) and Rackard (Tyrone-Mayo at 1.30pm) finals either side of the Monaghan-Tyrone Ulster football final at 4pm on Saturday, and the Ring final (Derry-Offaly at 1pm) before Sunday’s Dublin-Kildare Leinster football final at 4pm.
