Match ban actually works in Ó Sé's favour

KERRY MAY feel pleasantly satisfied about securing an advance booking into the Allianz Football League semi-finals although it hasn’t been entirely guilt free – at least not for Tomás Ó Sé.

His straight red card in Sunday’s win over Laois – his second of their current league campaign – means he’s now facing a two-match ban, under the GAA’s experimental rule on match suspensions.

Ó Sé was red-carded just 10 minutes into the game for an apparent off-the-ball incident with Laois forward Billy Sheehan, having only recently returned to the Kerry starting line-up after already receiving a one-match ban for the red card picked up in Kerry’s defeat to Armagh last month.

Unless he successfully appeals this decision, which seems highly unlikely, Ó Sé’s automatic one-match ban will be doubled, as it is a repeat infraction within the 48-week period.

However, the match suspensions – as opposed to the previous time-based suspensions – will actually work to Kerry’s and Ó Sé’s advantage: he will miss the final round game on Sunday week against Mayo (which Kerry can afford to lose anyway) and also the league semi-finals on April 15th. But should Kerry progress to the final, on April 29th, Ó Sé will be eligible to return – whereas under the timed-based scenario he would most likely have missed out on that game too.

Ó Sé’s loss, whatever about his disciplinary record, is somewhat tempered by the return of Colm “Gooch” Cooper – who took a break following the defeat of his club Dr Crokes in the All-Ireland club semi-final.

Cooper actually played for Dr Crokes this weekend, scoring 0-8 in a league game, and Kerry manager Jack O’Connor confirmed he would be rejoining the county training panel this week, adding the player was “raring to go”.

The two-week break before the final round of games will give most other counties the time they need to reassess their positions ahead of some decisive showdowns – with the exception of Dublin and Mayo, who will play their postponed second-round game this Saturday evening, back at McHale Park in Castlebar, with a 7pm start.

Mayo badly need a victory to avoid ending up in a relegation battle, while Dublin can boost their chances of making the semi-finals with a victory – following on from last Saturday’s hard-fought win over Donegal.

That marked Donegal’s fourth defeat in their six games to date, and puts considerable pressure on them going into the final game against Armagh on Sunday week.

The two-week break will afford Michael Murphy more time to recover from the knee injury sustained late on in the Dublin game, although the preliminary reports suggest he has only sustained minor ligament damage.

Donegal should also have Colm McFadden back for the Armagh game, after he missed the Dublin with a hamstring injury.

Although Kerry are certain of place in the Division One semi-finals, nothing else is decided in the division: what is certain is the top four teams will contest the semi-finals (which only apply to Division One), while the bottom two teams are automatically relegated across all divisions, and the top two promoted. Still plenty to play for then, if only in the higher divisions.

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Division One

Only Kerry can look forward to a semi-final already, with Cork leading the chase to join them, although effectively the other two semi-final spots and the two relegation places can all be either lost or gained by Dublin, Down, Armagh, Mayo, Donegal and Laois.

Division Two

Again only Tyrone can relax in the knowledge they have clinched promotion; Kildare will need to beat Galway to ensure they also make the leap up. At the other end, Derry, Meath, Westmeath, Louth and Monaghan will fight out the relegation battle between each other.

Division Three

Longford's rise continues as they are promoted for the second successive year, despite only drawing with Tipperary at the weekend, and Wexford also ensured their promotion with a win over Antrim.

Tipperary have been relegated at the other end, but with Offaly beating Cavan already, it's not yet certain who else will make the drop.

Division Four

With three rounds remaining there should be plenty more to fight for, but Fermanagh and Clare are almost certainly promoted as they only require one point from their remaining games.