Doctor queries decision to play

News round-up: The controversy surrounding the staging of the Leinster hurling quarter-finals at O'Moore Park, Portlaoise, in torrential rain on Sunday continued yesterday with one of the GAA's top medical advisers questioning the decision.

Dr Pat Duggan, chair of the Medical, Scientific and Welfare Committee, said that in his opinion the conditions had been hazardous.

"I think we were lucky there weren't any injuries," he said. "At times it looked impossible to play on the surface. To me it didn't look playable."

He also said that the committee, a high-powered collective appointed last month, would be dealing with the issue at its next meeting. Included among the terms of reference are to advise the Management Committee "on medical issues relating to GAA players" and "on the development of medical policies for all aspects of player welfare in relation to Gaelic Games".

"We have simple objectives," he said, "to act as adviser to the uachtarán and Management Committee on issues including ones that arise out of the blue. This particular situation is certainly one we will deal with at the next meeting and make a recommendation to the uachtarán."

According to Duggan the risk of injury is intensified during conditions such as those in Portlaoise.

"There is the velocity generated when slipping in very wet conditions and the danger of another player sliding in from a different direction with the exposure to fracture or ligamental damage because the force generated is so much greater than on a normal surface.

"Players were also sliding into ridiculous positions and we were lucky that other players weren't hit by hurleys, not because of any malice but by accident."

Decisions on whether matches go ahead are the responsibility of match referees, in conjunction with the organising committee - in this case the Leinster Council - as outlined by the media officer of the National Referees Committee, Fr Séamus Gardiner.

"Normally officers from the provincial council go with the referee but it is the referee's decision. His only criterion is: 'is this dangerous to players?' If it's in any way dangerous, the advice is 'don't play'.

"A referee may also decide to start the match and see how the ground plays because he has the authority to stop the match at any stage if he considers that it would be dangerous to continue."

Leinster secretary Michael Delaney explained that the proper procedures had been exhaustively followed and that he and provincial chair Liam O'Neill had been monitoring the state of the ground from early morning.

"We inspected the pitch at intervals from 10.30 on. We consulted widely and the team managers were on the pitch with the referee, Fergus Smith (a late replacement for John Sexton) before the first match.

"There were no complaints at that stage. If there had been obviously we would have had to revisit the issue.

"The final decision is with the referee. At half-time in the first match he reported that the pitch was the same as it had been at the start. There was another inspection before the second match with referee John Ryan consulting with officials from Laois and Offaly. Again there was no disagreement on playing."

In the aftermath of the match both Laois manager Dinny Cahill and his Offaly counterpart John McIntyre were extremely critical of the decision to stage the match.

Delaney, however, made the point that there was no motivation on the part of the Leinster Council to play the match apart from the decisions of the match referees.

"We looked into moving the second match to another venue but there was nowhere in the vicinity with better weather. Postponement wouldn't have been a problem. There was a small attendance and we had other dates pencilled in."

He denied that he had been under any pressure from RTÉ, whose scheduled Galway-Sligo match had been called off earlier, to provide a live broadcast, saying that the council hadn't even been aware that the Westmeath-Dublin was being transmitted.

"The first I knew about that was when I got a phone call to say the match was on. No one from RTÉ even mentioned it to me, which I would have thought they might."

Finally the Gaelic Players Association expressed "its deep dissatisfaction at the decision to play the double-header in appalling conditions at Portlaoise on Sunday", adding that "the decision showed scant regard for the safety and wellbeing of the players involved".

The GPA called on the GAA "to review this situation to ensure steps are taken to prevent such an occurrence in the future".