Clare board to investigate fracas

GAELIC GAMES:IT WILL be another week at least before the Clare County Board decides whether to begin disciplinary action against any of the proponents of the violent incidents that marred last Saturday's minor club hurling final – including Dublin hurling manager Anthony Daly.

Kilmaley’s one point win, 1-16 to Clarecastle’s 1-15, was completely overshadowed by the fight that broke out on the sideline towards the end of the game, played at Sixmilebridge.

Daly has only recently returned to a mentoring role with his native club, Clarecastle, and quite graphic photographs from Saturday’s game appeared to capture his involvement in the mass brawl, when clashing with Kilmaley coach Niall Romer, with up to 10 players also playing some part.

Clare officials, however, have been wary to draw any conclusions on the seriousness of the incidents, as they wait for the report of match referee Jim Hickey, from Cratloe. The county board are not due to meet again until next Monday night, and it’s unlikely any action will be taken in the meantime.

“The matter will first come before Bord na nÓg Iomáint,” explained a Clare official. “We’ll wait and see how they handle the situation and what transpires from that but in the meantime we have no other comment to make.”

Last week GAA director general Páraic Duffy was asked to comment on a disciplinary breakdown at club games in Limerick and Cavan. He said: “One of the issues is that, and I’m not saying it was the cause of incidents at the weekend, but the numbers of people on the sideline are certainly a factor and that is something that is going to be addressed before the end of the year.”

Daly only this weekend completed his backroom team as he takes charge of the Dublin hurlers for a fifth successive season. Former Tipperary trainer Ross Dunphy will take over from Martin Kennedy, who has opted to work with the Dublin footballers.

It’s unlikely the Kilmaley-Clarecastle incident will prove any lingering distraction, and both the Dublin hurlers and footballers can soon resume collective training under the GAA’s revised “closed season” policy.

It seemed initially that an anomaly in that policy would afford some counties the chance to return to collective training two weeks earlier than counties who exited at the same stage of the championship – purely on the basis of match scheduling.

The Dublin footballers, for example, looked set to endure an extra two weeks of the “closed season”. Congress last April voted to amend Rule 6.44, which refers to such collective training, modifying it to operate on a staggered basis: counties who exited the championship in June are now allowed to resume training on November 15th; those eliminated in July can resume on December 1st; those beaten in August have to wait until December 8th; and those beaten in September can’t return to collective training until December 29th.

This meant that while the Cork footballers can return to training on December 8th, given that they exited the championship in the All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Donegal, played on August 26th, Dublin would have to wait until December 29th before they could resume collective training, given that they exited the championship in the All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Mayo, which happened to be played on September 2nd.

However this situation was appealed and the Dublin footballers are now free to return to training on December 8th, same as Cork. In hurling, Dublin and Offaly exited the championship in phase two of the hurling qualifiers, played on July 7th, and thus face the same extended lay-off as Waterford and Limerick, who exited the championship in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, played on July 29th.

There was a similar anomaly for counties beaten in the earlier stages of this year’s football championship, on June 30th, as they could officially return to training two weeks earlier than a county beaten on July 1st Either way, the so-called “closed season” is not nearly as closed as it used to be.