I WASN'T at the Athletic Grounds when Armagh beat Antrim in their Football League Division Three match in March.
Even if I had been that doesn’t mean I would have seen what Kieran McGeeney is alleged to have done to be slapped with a 12- week ban, given it took a month for news of it to emerge.
So, in the absence of first hand information, all we can go on is what’s been reported and hasn’t been denied by anyone involved – that McGeeney got his three-month suspension for a category IIIa offence contravening GAA’s Rule 7.2 for “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”.
The minimum ban for that is 12 weeks. So on the face of things McGeeney got off lightly.
I wasn’t at Nowlan Park to see Tipperary beat Wexford in the Hurling League semi-final either, but I did watch it live on TV and did see exactly what Davy Fitzgerald actually did to get slapped with an eight-week ban.
That was also the minimum sanction for the rule he was reported by the referee to have broken, the one that prohibits “any type of physical interference with an Opposing Player or Team Official”.
That’s a category IIa offence, which – spoiler alert – isn’t the same as a category IIIa offence.
That’s why the minimum suspensions are different, which is why the avalanche of reaction to McGeeney’s ban that brought Fitzgerald’s into the conversation missed the point.
The outrage was as expected as it was wrong.
On social media, in columns, in print and on the airwaves words like “precedent” were thrown around by people who don’t know what it means.
Even much of the less hyperbolic reaction still managed to operate under the impression the two managers had been banned for the same thing.
The two cases were lumped together by, among others, Tomas O Se, Steven McDonnell and Oisin McConville to make the case that McGeeney (right) was hard done by.
McConville at least conceded that things had been done “by the book” but still fell into the trap of defending his former team-mate with an irrelevant comparison.
“Even if we didn’t have the reference point of Davy Fitz’s shenanigans, your first reaction is ‘Wow, 12 weeks for an altercation with a linesman’,” McConville told 2FM.
“It is by the book. That is the rule and that is the punishment but I don’t think the punishment really fits the crime.”
“If you use Davy ‘Fitz’ as a reference point, it seems really extreme.”
Apart from the fact that McConville is implying he knows what the crime is, Davy ‘Fitz’ isn’t a reference point because he’s been banned for something different.
If a player decks an opponent he gets a ban. If a player decks a referee or a linesman or an umpire he gets a much bigger ban.
As he should. Davy ‘Fitz’ doing what he did lands him with a ban. ‘Geezer’ doing what he is alleged to have done lands him with a longer ban. As it should.
Any argument linking the two is a false equivalence, and doesn’t hold a drop of water.
Rail against Davy ‘Fitz’ getting off lightly – and the ban Tipp’s Jason Forde got for confronting what amounted to a pitch invader – all you want, but don’t use it defend something different that has nothing to do with it.
GAA drops the sliothar in promotiong its games
TWENTY senior inter-county teams were in action in their All-Ireland Championships on Saturday.
There were four Christy Ring Cup matches and three each in the Nicky Rackard and Lory Meagher Cup.
None of those matches pulled in massive crowds – they never do.
At last year’s finals day for those three competitions in Croke Park the crowd was restricted to a small section in the middle of the lower deck of the Hogan Stand.
There was no need for any more seats to be made available.
It’s a shame there isn’t more interest in hurling among the majority of counties in Ireland but the GAA itself was culpable last weekend for a lack of interest.
Anyone following the GAA’s Twitter account on Saturday wouldn’t have been able to move for updates on the U21 football final and exhortations to visit GAA.ie for live updates.
And they wouldn’t have seen one word about all those hurling matches.
The homepage of the GAA website late on Saturday showed links to a report and reaction from Dublin’s win over Galway in Tullamore and PREVIEWS of the Ring, Rackard and Meagher Cup matches.
The results had been updated but anyone wanting to read about Antrim beating Down, Tyrone surprising Donegal or Lancashire creating some history against Fermanagh would have been out of luck.
It was almost Sunday afternoon before any information beyond the scores appeared.
But, but, but, there were thousands of people at the U21 final and two men and no dogs at half those hurling matches!
So what? That’s an consideration a media outlet may have to make in deciding what its audience is interested in, what they cover and how much they cover it.
It isn’t the job of RTE or The Irish News who whoever else to promote Gaelic games. But it is the GAA’s.
These are its own competitions – the most important competitions for the majority of inter-county hurlers – and last Saturday the GAA showed them nothing but complete indifference.
