Bans likely to be taken on chin

LAOIS AND Kildare have until the weekend to decide whether to ask for personal hearings for their players involved in last Sunday’s tempestuous O’Byrne Cup match in Portlaoise.

After Wednesday night’s meeting of the Leinster Council Competitions Control Committee, the following suspensions were proposed: four weeks: Billy Sheehan, Kevin Meaney, Peter O’Leary and Denis Booth (all Laois), and John Doyle (Kildare); eight weeks: Morgan O’Flaherty (Kildare).

All of the above, apart from Booth, were shown straight red cards after a mass brawl in the first half of the match.

O’Flaherty’s proposed suspension was longer than the others, as he was cited for a kicking offence in the report of the Wexford referee Syl Doyle.

A seventh player, Kildare’s Pádraig O’Neill wasn’t involved in Wednesday night’s deliberations because his dismissal was on foot of a second yellow card.

The provincial council confirmed that at close of business yesterday no application for personal hearings had been received from either county but both were due to consider the matter last night.

There has been speculation that the referee might have mistaken the identity of one or two of the players red-carded – as even less inhibited combatants appeared to escape without any censure.

That will be a matter for any hearing that takes place and, given that it would be unlikely to affect the numbers suspended from either team, may not be taken any further.

If the proposed suspensions are accepted it will affect both counties in the National League, which begins tomorrow week. The bulk of the players would miss the first two rounds of the competition and O’Flaherty wouldn’t be back until round five.

These enforced absences would hit Laois particularly hard, as manager Seán Dempsey is already missing players from Portlaoise, who contest next month’s All-Ireland club semi-finals against Kilmurry-Ibrickane.