Challenging Ronan McCarthy ban was fight Cork were always likely to lose

The irony of Cork manager Ronan McCarthy’s 12-week suspension in respect of the team’s unauthorised training session on Youghal beach is that had he simply accepted the proposed suspension he’d be a quarter of the way through it already.

It was a fight Cork were always going to struggle to win, especially given the national mood in January with daily Covid cases hitting nearly five figures.

McCarthy was handed a 12-week suspension on Thursday night by the GAA’s Central Hearings Committee, under Rule 7.2 (e), for discrediting the association after a gathering of his players on the beach took place on January 2nd, outside of the stipulated return-to-training date in the middle of the month.

Unlike in the case of his Down counterpart, Paddy Tally, whose similar challenge was heard last week and who was suspended for eight weeks, the CHC decided not to impose the minimum suspension under rule.

Reality revisited: A year on from when the GAA world shut down

---

GAA return to play suspended indefinitely on Government guidance

---

Between the Lines: Hurling’s revolution years always worth revisiting

---

Tally, whose team is coincidentally in the same section of the scheduled national league as Cork, faced a similar charge last week after a team gathering at Abbey CBS Newry.

The committee met on Thursday to consider McCarthy’s challenge to a 12-week ban, which had been proposed three weeks ago by the association’s management committee.

There had been some surprise that Tally’s infraction attracted only the minimum suspension but the CHC obviously saw differences between the two situations.

Fewer mitigating circumstances

It is believed that the committee considered that there were fewer mitigating circumstances in the Cork case, for example the numbers involved – nearly three times as many in Cork as in Down, 50 as against 16 or 17 – which was evident from the wide range of photographs taken in Youghal.

Both counties vigorously disputed that they had done anything unsafe and argued they had observed Covid protocols at all times. The issue remained however that any gatherings were clearly contrary to the GAA’s directive that there be no collective training until mid-January.

On the night of their gathering, Down had been visited by the PSNI, who found that no breaches of public health regulations had taken place.

In Cork’s case, it is now known after last week’s revelation that the exemption from Level 5 restrictions no longer exists for Gaelic games so their gathering was also in breach of public directives as well as the GAA’s, although no-one in the association was aware of that at the time.

With that exemption suspended, there are no signs of the intercounty season getting re-started even in the medium term so the suspensions are unlikely to have full effect and McCarthy is likely to serve at least half of his ban before any return to play is authorised.

GAA sources, asked why the punishments can’t be fixed to take effect from when the counties are back in action, pointed out that under rule the suspensions run from the time of the hearing if the proposed penalty is challenged but had it been accepted, the punishment would have begun at the end of last month, the time of the proposal.

Highest-ranking body

The fact that the matter had been remitted to Croke Park’s highest-ranking body was indicative of how seriously the breach of the training ban had been viewed.

Unlike the Ulster county, Cork had also initially chosen to challenge the recommended punishment of the forfeiture of one home match in the league, under Rule 6.45, which governs collective training outside of the window determined by the GAA but earlier this week, they withdrew that.

There was no indication whether the Cork manager intends to avail of the option to appeal the suspension to the Central Appeals Committee but as the clock is running on it already and with little sign of any imminent return to play, it is likely that he will leave the matter rest.

Meanwhile, in an interview with yesterday’s Irish Mirror, Taoiseach Micheál Martin restated the Government’s cautious approach to any return of intercounty fixtures, currently in abeyance, but he expressed mild optimism that crowds might return later in the year.

“We want to get players back on the field first, that will be the first priority,” he said.

“The inter-county went well, I thought towards the latter part of the year and I think we’re minded to do that again with the inter-county situation.

“As we move later into the year we’ll have to look at what we can do with spectators and so on in terms of the vaccines and their efficacy.

“Our options may open up in the summer, I’m reluctant to overly promise and overly predict what will happen in 3-4 months’ time because of the nature of this.”