Dublin’s Jason Whelan banned for eight weeks

Dublin's Jason Whelan has been suspended for eight weeks after the Leinster Council investigation into allegations of biting in the O'Byrne Cup match between the All-Ireland champions and DCU two weeks ago.

A statement from the council tonight gave details of the process: "At a meeting tonight, the Leinster Council GAA imposed a suspension of eight weeks on a Dublin player Jason Whelan, arising from incidents in the O' Byrne Cup SF game - Dublin v DCU - played on Sunday, 12th January, 2014.

“The suspension was imposed in accordance with Rule 7.2 Category III (vii) - ‘inflicting injury recklessly’.

“The Dublin County Board and the player have indicated to the Leinster Council that they will accept the proposed sanction.”

The matter had been under investigation over the past week in the wake of the allegation, which arose during the match at Parnell Park and formed the basis of an incident referred to in the report of Meath referee David Gough.

Leinster’s Competitions Control Committee had appointed a sub-committee to investigate the matter and the full CCC met today to consider its findings. Dublin were represented at that meeting.

Whelan, from Ballymun Kickhams, has been a panellist on a couple of occasions with the team, although he wasn’t part of the All-Ireland winning squad. He will be out of the running for Dublin’s first three national league fixtures against Kerry, Westmeath and Cork.

Suspensions in provincial competitions remain time-based whereas at national level they are now imposed as match bans.