Monaghan’s Thomas Connolly handed two-year drug ban

Monaghan footballer Thomas Connolly has been suspended for two years after admittedly taking stanozolol, an anabolic steroid prohibited under the wada code.

The GAA’s three man anti-doping committee of Adrian Colton QC (chair), Dr Pat O’Neill and former association president Nickey Brennan did, however, reduce the ban from four years after accepting that Connolly established the violation was not intentional as per rule 10.1.3 of the anti-doping rules.

Connolly was suspended under article 2.1 as he accepted "the presence of a banned substance" in a sample taken on February 13th following an out of competition test by the Irish Sports Council at Monaghan's training base in Cloghran.

The 23 year old joined Malachy O’Rourke’s senior panel in November 2014, making three appearances during the McKenna Cup while also being an used panelist in one National Football League game.

He left the panel after being informed of the adverse analytical finding in March.

"The committee were satisfied that at all relevant times the athlete was a member of the GAA, " the committee stated before adding that Connolly's barrister, Aaron Shearer, argued "firstly that the authority to test Gaelic players was limited to senior inter-county players and secondly that because of a failure to inform the athlete [CONNOLLY]of the existence of the anti-doping provisions in the GAA rules, the relevant rule could not be enforced against him under, what he referred to as 'the Red Hand Rule' as set out in the case of Carroll v An Post (1996)."

In response, Feargal McGill of the GAA referred the Official Guide in

2003 whereby “any player” in the GAA was subject to the anti-doping code. It was also noted that testing has taken place since 2001.

The committee rejected Connolly’s defence but was satisfied, having heard testimony from the player on June 3rd, to sanction a two rather than four year suspension.

Both Connolly and the GAA have 21 days to appeal the judgment.