GAELIC GAMES:The GAA's Central Hearings Committee will resume its deliberations on Monday evening after a late night on Thursday failed to clear the matter of the Cork-Clare suspensions arising from the fracas before last month's Munster hurling fixture in Thurles. The decisions will be announced next Tuesday at lunchtime, writes Seán Moran,GAA Correspondent.
There were two principal reasons for the adjournment. Firstly the Clare players granted a hearing, Colin Lynch, Alan Markham, Andrew Quinn and Barry Nugent, were not in attendance and it is believed that the CHC were reluctant to deliver a determination in relation to the Cork suspensions to Dónal Cusack, Diarmuid O'Sullivan, John Gardiner and Seán Ó hAilpín in advance of dealing with their Clare counterparts.
Secondly the meeting on Thursday went on for over three hours with Cork presenting an exhaustive argument, which took a long time considering there were four cases to hear plus the matter of a €5,000 fine imposed on the county board.
According to a Croke Park source the Clare players are expected to attend on Monday evening. Should the players absent themselves again, the CHC is likely to go ahead and take its decision without the players, in keeping with the Matty Forde precedent last year.
The delay means that the case is now heading for its third week, which is slightly embarrassing given the hopes that the new disciplinary system would expedite cases of this nature.
The first step in this process was the investigation by the Central Competitions Control Committee, which recommended that the eight players mentioned above be suspended for four weeks each and that the two county boards be fined.
As CCCC chair Jimmy Dunne and his deputy Joe O'Shaughnessy were both out of the country, the committee's case was put to the CHC by Ulster secretary Danny Murphy (all four provincial secretaries are members of the CCCC).
Should the suspensions be upheld, it will be open to those concerned to appeal to the Central Appeals Committee. Given that Cork's next championship match, against Waterford, takes place tomorrow week it is believed that the CAC will accommodate a swift hearing of appeals should they be lodged with next Wednesday night being pencilled in as the likely date.
Although the Disputes Resolution Committee was set up to give parties an option instead of seeking redress in the civil courts, a far greater number pursue this remedy than would have pursued court cases. The DRA don't have to hear cases in time for specific matches but in the past they have been flexible about doing so and have also exercised the option to make an interim finding about players' eligibility for selection.
Meanwhile, All-Ireland champions Kilkenny include four changes from the side that won last September's All-Ireland final.
Willie O'Dwyer comes in to the forwards in place of the injured Richie Power. JJ Delaney, whose cruciate injury kept him out of the final against Cork, returns in place of James Ryall with Brian Hogan, who started last month's NHL final at full back, named instead of John Tennyson at centre back.
In goal PJ Ryan gets his first championship start in four years after a League campaign during which he was the regular goalkeeper. He's in for the experienced James McGarry.
Elsewhere Gerard Cavlan has been cleared to play against Donegal in the Ulster football semi-final tomorrow week. Cavlan received a straight red card while playing for Dungannon against Killyclogher last Sunday. He has had a four-week suspension imposed, but the ban is restricted to club football, and will not interfere with his county commitments.
KILKENNY(SHC v Offaly): PJ Ryan; M Kavanagh, N Hickey, J Tyrrell; T Walsh, B Hogan, JJ Delaney; D Lyng, J Fitzpatrick; W O'Dwyer, H Shefflin (capt), E Larkin; E Brennan, M Comerford, A Fogarty.
