Players and officials from the Wolfe Tones and Ogonnelloe clubs met last night to discuss the Clare County Board directive that their hurling quarter-final is to be replayed on Monday.
Although Wolfe Tones won the match, Ogonnelloe members felt extremely aggrieved that almost 10 minutes of injury time was played. In a statement issued by club secretary Pat Gavin, it was stressed that the manner in which the team had been defeated had been tantamount to "the abuse of a small community".
After meeting last night in Ennis, the Clare County Board decided that the match should be replayed in Tulla on bank holiday Monday but declined to give comment beyond that.
Although there was a general feeling after the match that excessive injury time had been played, the decision to replay the game is likely to draw mixed responses from both clubs.
"There is still a feeling of anxiety and ambivalence in our club, a belief that Ogonnelloe had the game won. Also, the team have already played Championship games on six successive Sundays, which must be unprecedented in the history of Clare GAA," commented Ogonnelloe vice-chairman, Donal Molloy.
He said that Wolfe Tones officials had indicated that the amount of time played had cost their opponents the match.
They stressed in their original statement that "in a year where time keeping has already created major controversy, everyone in attendance at the game, including umpires, linesmen and both sets of supporters were of the unanimous opinion that a major injustice occurred, which was echoed by the Wolfe Tones officials when they visited our dressingroom".
While their case was obviously viewed sympathetically, the Clare County Board had no precedent to follow in reaching their decision as added time is left purely to the discretion of the referee. There are no rules governing situations relating to possible irregularities regarding time added on. The situation provides a precise reverse of last summer's void All-Ireland semi-final match between Clare and Offaly, which was controversially ended prematurely, leading to a replay and widespread calls for the GAA to redress the existing method of timekeeping. However, GAA PRO Danny Lynch did not feel that the current issue necessarily advanced the case for the widespread, regulated use of electronic clocks similar to those used during the recent International Rules series.
"When incidents like this happen, there is a tendency for sway towards knee-jerk reaction. But discretionary added time is common in most sports, including soccer. There are around 10,000 games played across this country on most weekends. Rarely does this issue cause trouble," he said
He pointed out that while the notion of electronic time-keeping was fine theoretically, it would be difficult to advance in practice.
"It's all very well introducing such devices to big grounds, but every venue in the country? It's like the case for two referees, which seems like a wonderful idea but in reality, it is quite difficult obtaining one referee to cover the schedules." Lynch said it was unlikely that the issue of added time would be raised at national level in the foreseeable future.
However, the situation provides yet another footnote to the litany of time-keeping inconsistencies which have dogged gaelic games recently. In Leinster, controversy continues to rage over the final whistle in a club hurling match involving Trim and Naomh Eoin. Initial reports that the game had been abandoned because of fighting after 58 minutes were dismissed by the referee, who informed the Leinster Council that he had ended the game after playing three and half minutes of injury time. Naomh Eoin officials dispute this, leaving a five-and-a-half minute difference between the interpretations of both parties.
At the Ogonnelloe-Wolfe Tones game, referee Sean Hehir ran nine minutes and 44 seconds of injury time. Ogonnelloe had led throughout the match, and were still two points ahead 37 minutes into the second half when Wolfe Tones worked a late goal, the last score of the game.
The sense of outrage and dismay expressed by club members was heightened by the fact that the result halted an unprecedented championship run. Drawing from an extremely small resource pool, the club have risen steadily through junior and intermediate ranks in recent years and were competing in the quarter-final of the Clare senior championship for the first time in their history.
If they manage to win the replay, they face St Joseph's in the semi-final.
Meanwhile, Enniskillen Gaels Shane Connolly and Crossmaglen's Joe Fitzpatrick will both be absent when their teams face each other in Sunday's Ulster Club Championship semi-final. Connolly has been suspended for a month by the Ulster Council after being sent off in a match against Rostrevor on October 4th while Fitzpatrick will serve a similar sentence for his dismissal against Mullahoran a week later.
A number of venue changes have been made to the weekend's schedule. The Saturday All-Ireland B football championship match between Tipperary and Fermanagh will take place in Drumard at 3.30 p.m. while Waterford will host Tipperary in Dungarvan at 2.0 p.m. on Monday.
