THE DISPUTES Resolution Authority (DRA) will today put an end to the long-running Paul Galvin saga by announcing their verdict on his appeal against a 24-week ban, imposed some six weeks ago by the GAA's Central Competitions Control Committee.

Galvin had two separate hearings with the DRA over the past week in an effort to get his ban either lifted or reduced so that he might still play some part in the football championship. As things stand, the Kerry captain will miss the entire championship no matter how far Kerry progress, though a possible reduction to a 12-week ban would allow him play in the final if Kerry got that far.

"Where there is light there is hope," said the Kerry county board chairman, Jerome Conway, yesterday, following Galvin's second hearing with the DRA on Monday evening.

The three-person subcommittee of the DRA then convened again last night to decide on their verdict, which will be delivered some time today.

Galvin's appeal began last Tuesday with the initial hearing, which went on for several hours before being adjourned at 2.30 the following morning.

The hearing was then continued on Monday evening, again lasting several hours, and with Galvin once again present along with the Kerry county board secretary Eamonn O'Sullivan and respondents on behalf of the GAA.

The exact grounds of Galvin's appeal are still unclear, although Conway suggested there were some technicalities involved.

"It's nearly all technicalities when you're dealing with a legal team like the DRA," he said.

Galvin's ban goes back to Kerry's Munster semi-final against Clare on June 15th, and the infamous incident where match referee Paddy Russell had his notebook smacked from his hands by the Kerry captain as Galvin was being shown a second yellow card.

Galvin then proceeded to voice his disagreement before running to do likewise to the match linesman, despite the efforts of his team-mate Tomás Ó Sé to restrain him.

The ban was based on three categories of offence (I, II, and IV), under Rule 143 (b); Category I (being ordered off on foot of a second cautionable offence); Category II (abusive language towards a referee, umpire, linesman or sideline official, which carries a minimum four-week suspension); and Category IV (minor physical interference with - eg, laying a hand on, pushing, pulling or jostling - threatening or abusive conduct towards, or threatening language to a referee, umpire, linesman or sideline official).

Both the Central Hearings Committee (CHC) and the Central Appeals Committee (CAC) upheld Gavin's ban, but the lengthy hearing of the DRA suggests Galvin has at least given them something to consider.

There is the fresh expectation the DRA can in fact reduce the ban, rather than only uphold or clear it; this weekend's meeting of the GAA's Central Council explained that the announcement and rationalisation of decisions of the DRA were matters totally at the DRA's discretion. In all cases, the DRA decision is binding.

Meanwhile, the future of the Galway hurling manager Ger Loughnane was still up in the air ahead of last night's meeting of the county hurling board.

Loughnane still has another year under the agreed three-year term, but he has hinted last Saturday's qualifier defeat to Cork would be his last game in charge.

Loughnane has, however, yet to inform the county board of his exact intentions, and last night's standard meeting of the hurling board was not scheduled to address the matter.

According to the county press officer Séamus Finnerty, the meeting was to address a range of financial and other administration matters, and the issue of the senior manager would be raised only under "any other business".

"What Ger Loughnane said about delivering an All-Ireland in two years was maybe taken out of context a little," said Finnerty.

"No manager could have done that, considering where Galway hurling was coming from over the past 20 years. It was never realistic."

Galway do have a full county board meeting scheduled for tomorrow evening, and by then the likelihood of Loughnane staying on, along with his selectors Seán Treacy and Louis Mulqueen, should at least be a little clearer.

In other managerial news, the former Meath player and current pundit Colm O'Rourke has ruled himself out of the running to replace Colm Coyle in the Meath senior football job.

Coyle resigned in the aftermath of Meath's surprise qualifier defeat to Limerick, and O'Rourke has since indicated the job was probably not of interest to him at this stage.