One prominent inter-county manager, whom I would not readily accuse of naivety, last week inquired conversationally about the goings-on in Kerry. On hearing about the tumult and intrigue, he took issue. "Any other county maybe," was his argument, "but Kerry take their football too seriously." According to one senior GAA official, the impact of the Kerry county board decision to exculpate their county captain Darragh Ó Sé has been immense and that he's never seen such anger generated by a decision

It's easy to see why. There exists within the GAA a great deal of pressure to get on top of disciplinary problems and there can be no doubt that the association has made major strides in attempting to improve the situation. Whereas it has been on occasion let down by referees this season, the GAA has concentrated a lot of effort on training courses, monitoring performances and, through spokesperson Fr Séamus Gardiner, being available to give the officials' side of the story in general - if not specific - terms.

The Games Administration Committee (GAC) has been vigilant in formulating charges on the basis of video evidence and gives the impression - with a few questionable exceptions - of being ready to deal with foul play wherever it finds it. Only last Saturday, Central Council accepted that a yellow card administered during a match should no longer be seen as some form of immunity against more appropriate punishment in the light of video evidence - in other words closing off the "Diarmuid O'Sullivan loophole".

These strenuous efforts to promote a culture of intolerance towards foul play have had an impact down the line and even within counties internal affairs are run on a more rigorous footing. The acceptance that it is "manly" or admirable to commit aggressive fouls in order to give your team an unfair advantage is slowly being eroded.

Into this slowly evolving situation intrudes an example of a county being perceived to bend the rules for its own advantage. It would be overly dramatic to say that it couldn't have come at a worse time, but it constitutes a severe embarrassment for the GAA and two of its most senior figures.

As has been revealed, current president Seán McCague intervened in Down and Derry not ostensibly to force disciplinary verdicts one way or the other, but to urge the counties to apply the rules strictly and without favour. His successor, the current president-elect Seán Kelly, is from Kerry and has been embarrassed in much the same way as McCague's predecessor Joe McDonagh was when a similar controversy took place in his county of Galway three years ago.

McCague has always accorded a high priority to disciplinary matters. When chairman of the GAC 10 years ago, he took a number of initiatives to crack down on foul play. His tenure as president has been marked by the same resolve. It was no wonder that there was such a vexed tone to his statement on Monday calling on counties (there have been Kerry-style incidents concerning Tipperary minors and Wexford under-21s of late) to furnish him with details of decisions to excuse county players from the stipulated consequences of a red card.

In relation to the incident itself, there are only a couple of points to be made by anyone who didn't actually see the match. But conversations with people in Kerry reveal one thing: whether Ó Sé's action was provoked or exaggerated by the player fouled (allegations both made and disputed), no-one is saying it didn't happen. Advised by an umpire, the referee showed a straight red. It's hard to know where exactly was the room for ambiguity.

Comparisons with Cork's Munster football title are as spurious as you can get - even in this sort of a situation. The deployment of a 21st player with minutes to go in a match that was being won at a canter did not constitute an attempt to gain unfair advantage. It was a cock-up. The Cork county board did not sit down and pass judgement on themselves, but brought to Munster Council a case, which - despite its obvious flaws - was accepted.

In the instant case, Kerry officials have sat down to consider whether their captain and leading player should be suspended according to rule or not. They have had the final say in the matter despite a huge conflict of interest.

A meeting with Management Committee last Friday culminated in the advice being proffered that the referee's report was deficient in not specifying the offence for which Ó Sé was suspended. The county board must have established that the referee had in fact no grounds for sending off the player and therefore that there would be no suspension.

For a referee to overturn a straight red card is difficult but not impossible. Although it was accepted nine years ago - when McCague was chair of GAC - that an immediate sending-off offence (the then equivalent of a straight red card) had to carry a mandatory four-week suspension, this was tempered a couple of years later by the creation of two exceptions: one, video evidence that the player didn't commit the offence would be sufficient and, two, if the referee's report needed clarification or amendment.

In retrospect, that second exception has been a bit of disaster. It encourages leaning on referees to change their report. No-one can say what happened to the report under discussion but it is known that pressures existed. The referee, Tom McCarthy from Castleisland, was subject to criticism - the tip of the iceberg being publicly admitted by county chairman Seán Walsh.

How are other counties meant to view the drawn-out need for "clarification" as credible? This has all the makings of a watershed case. Given the widespread cynicism about the decision to allow Ó Sé play, there is a strong possibility that steps will be taken to reform this unsatisfactory state of affairs. In the meantime, and regrettably no matter what the rights and wrongs of the matter, a cloud will hang over Kerry and their captain when he plays this weekend.