Too often the wheels of justice in the GAA move slowly, and justice delayed is justice denied. Thankfully, this weekend it seems as if some elements of last Sunday’s controversies involving Armagh and Galway have been resolved.
eán Kelly acted with incredible restraint during the fracas at the end of normal time, but was put on death row for next weekend’s All-Ireland semi-final. He did not deserve that and his gesture in immediately shaking hands with Aidan Nugent after both were sent off by David Coldrick said a lot about the man.
The row last Sunday was unsightly and involved some thuggish behaviour. Tiernan Kelly has been suspended for six months for the eye gouging of Damien Comer, which means his club will suffer but his county won’t. Much worse for him is the fact that he will be remembered for that act long after he finishes playing. This moment of madness left a very sour taste, irrespective of what type of character he is.
In another life I was part of a team who were not known for being too delicate. Maybe that leaves me in a better position. Strange as it may seem, I can’t recall any similar incident in my time with Meath (I wasn’t playing in 1996). The players hit hard, sometimes unfairly, but it was upfront and there were categories of foul behaviour which were completely outside the pale.
I was involved in quite a few skirmishes at club level but at that time there were basic rules of engagement. Anyone who kicked, spat or headbutted was fair game for a good hiding, but I had never heard of gouging until it became a problem in rugby.
There are very severe penalties for that specific offence in their game, but I have to say I find it hard to understand why someone would try to cause damage to another person’s eyes. The answer, I guess, is that sometimes the best of young men do extraordinarily stupid things. Anyone involved in education at secondary level could testify to that.
Armagh have been involved in three serious incidents this year and it is not a coincidence. They have a very aggressive approach which often goes too far. They seem to have taken the view that they needed to toughen up and that other teams had a physical edge over them. Their approach, though, is completely self-defeating.
It would be untrue to say that Armagh were always like that. Not in my time playing anyway and there was no evidence of it in the winning team of 20 years ago. That was a tough side with a lot of proper hard men. Francie Bellew is a case in point; he hit hard but was never mean or underhand and he never felt he had to be shouting abuse at an opponent. Neither did Kieran
McGeeney, who I played against. He was tough, fair and honest in approach, never nasty. So if there is a culture of over-aggressiveness then it is a latter-day phenomenon.
The whole game was marred by weak officiating, which was a surprise given that one of the best referees in the country was in charge. A couple of glaring examples stood out.
There was the incident with Armagh goalkeeper Ethan Rafferty and Damien Comer which was not properly dealt with but the most obvious case involved Galway’s Shane Walsh.
As Galway’s best forward he was singled out for special treatment. It goes with the territory, the same as David Clifford or Con O’Callaghan are subjected to. James Morgan was in Walsh’s ear from early on, blocking his runs and generally distracting him. It worked well and Walsh dealt badly with it, but then again he was entitled to protection from the officials.
I was sitting in the Hogan Stand and it was obvious that the Galway management were white with anger over the way Walsh was getting it. Morgan was on a yellow card in the second half when he and Walsh were involved in a protracted wrestling match on the ground while play went on. The linesman, Fergal Kelly, stood close by but when it was over there was no action taken. Is this because he was not informed or because he decided not to act?
A yellow card for both would have meant that Armagh would have been down to 13 for the rest of the game. How could at least seven officials allow this to happen? Why was there nothing done about the sledging? The black card was supposed to stop that. Again it was clear from watching live and from TV that there was a lot of mouthing going on, yet there were no sanctions.
Sanctions work. In school everyone understands that if you do X then you will get Y. The GAA disciplinary system is a disgrace and has been allowed to be so by those who run the organisation. Between the CCCC, CAC, CHC, DRA and presumably every player has the right to go to the High Court, five bodies could be involved.
Then there is the charade of one GAA body undermining another as if the burden of proof was for a criminal murder case rather than an amateur sporting body. This problem is not difficult to solve. Ask rugby and Australian rules and you could have a new system in no time. One body or citing commissioner to suspend, one appeal and goodnight.
The greatest anomaly of all is that if a team received a black card before the end of normal time they must serve it out in extra time, but somebody sent off can be replaced. Three players were sent off, yet both teams started extra time with 15 players. Go figure the logic in that.
The officials really lost control of the time element too. Half-time is 15 minutes, last Sunday it was 20. The extra time at the end of the game was to be at least eight; it ran to 10 and a half, which is fair enough. The break before the start of extra time is supposed to be 10 minutes, it was 21. Why did no official go in and tell the teams to come out?
The interval during extra time is in rule to be two minutes, it was in fact nearly five and then the penalty shoot-out was also dragged out. Did any of the officials think that there were two other teams waiting and that there was a responsibility to them? The second match started one hour and two minutes behind schedule. It is no wonder it was so flat.
In all of the aggression visible last Sunday there is responsibility. The first level is personal responsibility, something which got lost. Then there is team management’s responsibility and lastly the county boards’.
In Armagh’s case they have proven to be the weakest part of the chain when they are supposed to take in the bigger picture.
What they have basically said to their players this year is that no matter what you do we will try and get you off. If there is a major incident at club level the county board will have no moral authority to administer sanctions when they are unwilling to accept them for their county players. Ultimately a county board has responsibility for their players’ behaviour. All of their players.
Not all of the problems at the end of normal time were of Armagh’s doing, Galway players and subs did their share of mauling. However, getting involved in one big melee in a year can be passed off, two is getting very careless but after three there are very good reasons why Armagh now find themselves in the dock.
If this situation is dismissed by them as a media witch hunt, then they really have got a problem.
