Tunnel incident likely to be investigated by GAC

The GAA's Games Administration Committee is likely to investigate an incident in the tunnel as the teams went off at half-time in yesterday's Dublin-Laois Leinster semi-final at Croke Park. Television pictures showed a fracas developing as players left the field.

"I don't think anybody knows what happened," said GAA PRO Danny Lynch who was standing in the tunnel waiting for an interval Special Olympics presentation to GAA president Seán Kelly. "It happened and finished before I realised what was happening.

"I think that subs were jumping over the side railing into the tunnel but whether that was a reaction to something they thought was happening I don't know. I was facing the pitch by then. I thought the subs were taking a short cut.

"I don't think we should over-act until we establish the facts. It will be investigated. There's absolutely no doubt about that. But you have a stadium designed to the top international standard where you have dressing-rooms side by side. Players access and egress from the pitch together. Whether that's something that has to be looked at or whether we need to look at placing teams on different sides of the pitch isn't something I think we should rush into."

Dublin chief executive John Costello said: "I didn't see what happened. That's not a cop-out, I genuinely didn't but we will be co-operating fully with any investigation."

Laois manager Mick O'Dwyer was unconcerned. "I didn't see anything to be honest. I just walked inside to the dressing-room. Sure a scuffle like that does no one no harm."

O'Dwyer was manager of Kildare during the last "tunnel incident" at Croke Park, the 1993 Dublin-Kildare Leinster final. This year is the 20th anniversary of the most notorious of such incidents, half-time in the 1983 All-Ireland final between Dublin and Galway.