JOHN BANNON’S final act as an intercounty referee is to do nothing at all. The Longford official refused to upgrade the yellow card he showed Cork wing back John Miskella in last Sunday’s defeat of Tyrone, paving the way for the player to take his place in the All-Ireland final on September 20th.

Miskella was seen to strike Tyrone’s Brian McGuigan while Bannon, standing nearby, had his back to the incident. After consulting umpire Peter O’Reilly down the Hill 16 end, Bannon brandished a yellow card, much to McGuigan’s disgust.

A Croke Park statement confirmed as much yesterday after the Central Competitions Control Committee instructed Bannon to revisit the incident using video evidence. “The referee has confirmed that he considered that a yellow card was the appropriate sanction. The CCCC may not, therefore, initiate further disciplinary action in relation to this matter.”

There are obvious comparisons to the 2007 All-Ireland semi-final when Cork beat Meath after Noel O’Leary was clearly seen to make contact with Graham Geraghty, but referee Brian Crowe also refused to trigger the disciplinary process by changing his view afterwards. Although the referees’ committee denied Crowe was punished, he has yet to be awarded a high-profile fixture in the intervening two seasons.

This is Bannon’s last year as a senior intercounty referee and he is not expected to be awarded the All-Ireland final.

Miskella was a part of the last Cork panel to reach the 1999 All-Ireland final when they lost to Meath.

Meanwhile, the Sydney Swans coach Paul Roos has made it clear Tadhg Kennelly would be welcome back to Australian Rules football next season. Kennelly quit the professional sport this year to try to achieve a long-stated goal of joining his father and brother on Kerry’s All-Ireland winning roster.

However, the 28-year-old seemingly has retained the option of returning to the AFL in 2010.

“If Tadhg rang and said, ‘I’ve done it (won an All-Ireland medal), I’m finished, can we have a chat?’, then absolutely I’d sit down and talk to him,” said Roos.

“There’s a lot of water to go under the bridge before that happens. There are also a lot of other things (to consider) in terms of his body, what he expects and how long he wants to play for, but I’d speak to him. Whether he plays here next year or not I couldn’t say at this stage.”

Kennelly’s partner still lives in Sydney and, while he is favoured to see off current young footballer of the year Tommy Walsh for a place in the Kerry forward line, he has struggled to re-adapt to Gaelic football.

It has been confirmed that Kerry will don royal blue for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final with Meath remaining in the yellow jerseys they wore against Limerick and Mayo.

Pat Flanagan has informed the Westmeath Independent of his interest in the county’s vacant football manager’s position.

The former Tyrrellspass manager and selector under Tomás Ó Flátharta is the main internal candidate along with Dessie Dolan senior.

“The Westmeath manager’s job is a position I’m definitely interested in,” said Flanagan. “I spent six or seven months working alongside Tomás and it was a very good experience. I think I know what’s required to take it a step forward and a fair idea of what’s needed in terms of players and so on.”