ON TUESDAY afternoon, Dublin's football captain Keith Barr said that the team needed the Jason Sherlock-Paddy Delaney controversy "like a hole in the head".

With a number of injury problems and next month's high stakes Leinster first round meeting with Meath on the horizon, his dismay was understandable.

"Dublin football has been knocked from one side to the other over the last 12 months and we face a very difficult job," he added.

This sustained period of setbacks culminated in last Monday night's decision by the Dublin county committee to ignore the report they had themselves commissioned to investigate an allegation by Sherlock that county vice chairman Delaney had spat at him during the notorious Dublin Offaly under 21 match.

The controversy now appears to be heading for a conclusion, with a motion tabled to rescind last week's decision and the distinct possibility that Delaney may have to resign if the vote in his favour is, as would be expected, overturned.

When the publicity abates, not all the damage will have been repaired. The GAA's image infected by the extraordinary behaviour of the club representatives who, inadvertently or not, created anarchy by throwing out the investigating committee's recommendation that Delaney be suspended for two months.

The whole business is only the latest in a series of difficulties that the Dublin GAA has been trying to address over the last 10 months.

As a starting point, go back to last July when the county lost both its All Ireland and Leinster titles. Aside from the decline in status, the county suffered more tangible loss. The marketing potential of having the Sam Maguire to bring around schools was brought to an abrupt halt.

"In terms of sheer hype, you start from the top perch when you win it," according to one official. "There are greater opportunities for everyone, including the players, who are more marketable."

It was recognised that loss was inevitable, as no one county can keep on winning the All Ireland. But the manner of the defeat made Dublin's experience particularly traumatic. There was little consolation. Playing badly, they were beaten by neighbouring rivals Meath whom they had annihilated in the previous Leinster final.

Furthermore, the mood in the camp had been unhappy after a difficult first year for manager Mickey Whelan. After the match, captain John O'Leary conceded that preparations hadn't been ideal and that the team had lacked Meath's hunger and enthusiasm.

Their titles gone, Dublin had to endure the added frustration of seeing Meath take the All Ireland, with all that implied for the future balance of power within the province.

A further unedifying incident involved a public disagreement between O'Leary and county chairman John Bailey as to whether the player had expressed his support for manager Whelan.

Still a Division Two team, Dublin were anxious to gain promotion in the spring, but an uninspiring pre Christmas programme at one stage threatened the team with relegation, and it was largely thanks to good fortune that the county was still in with a shout of promotion going into the second half of the season.

Pressure mounted on Whelan, who became the subject of embittered and abusive attacks from a section of the Dublin supporters. In the midst of all this, morale was declining further and the chances of qualifying for the lucrative playoff stages of the league had faded.

This represented a loss of revenue for the county board, but it was unreasonable to saddle Whelan with financial responsibilities on top of everything else, as progress in the league was never part of the criteria by which he was to be judged. In fact, Dublin's 1995 All Ireland, the first in 12 years, was won after their first failure in nine years to reach the knockout stages of the league.

One positive development, around Christmas, saw the senior players convene a meeting in the early new year. Under new captain Keith Barr, the group decided they needed to set aside differences with Whelan and concentrate on giving the coming championship one last thrash.

Relationships within the panel improved as Barr became an effective liaison between management and players. Matters appeared to have settled satisfactorily for the team, and they finished the league strongly by thrashing an already promoted Laois.

But disaster struck again, although indirectly. The fallout from the under 21 championship match against Offaly consumed Dublin football. As heavy suspensions were handed down to several of those involved and the county was banned from two under 21 championships, the Sherlock affair simmered in the background.

As well as embroiling the players in controversy, the under 21 match endangered a long term campaign by county secretary John Costello for recognition of Dublin's special needs.

His report to the county convention had set out the case, and initial signs were that Croke Park and the GAA director general, Liam Mulvihill, were sympathetic.

The complication was that when Dublin brought to Congress their appeals from the Leinster Council under 21 suspensions, feelings ran sufficiently high during the course of the unsuccessful appeals to risk prejudicing the county's position when it came to seeking additional assistance.

All weekend of what was a dull agenda, the threat of Dublin taking action in the civil courts hung over Congress. Even the Dublin delegation admitted that it wasn't the most positive environment in which to win support for the county's cause.

No legal action was or has yet been taken. Fortunately for Dublin, the GAA recognised the distinction between the various issues at stake to the extent that a sum believed to be in the vicinity of £500,000 has been granted by Croke Park and the Leinster Council to assist with the Parnell Park rebuilding debt.

All of this was only reaching equilibrium when the Sherlock Delaney controversy broke last week. The allegation had been under investigation for nearly a month, and the witness evidence against Delaney was serious, with both the county secretary and one of the under 21 selectors testifying that they saw him spitting at Sherlock.

It is astonishing that a county committee would even consider overturning the findings of a duly appointed investigating body. Behind this decision lay an organised lobby of delegates which harnessed the sympathy for Delaney's denial and the resentment against Sherlock, which reached the ludicrous heights of one delegate declaring that the player should be suspended for, essentially, placing a greater importance on his education than on playing league and under 21 matches for Dublin.

Next Tuesday's extraordinary committee meeting will hear notice of motion to rescind last week's decision. When the vote is taken, the motion will require a two thirds majority which, in the light of the appalled reaction of clubs to their delegates decision, it should get.

When the matter is finally resolved, the county can then concentrate on avoiding a typically disastrous conclusion to the last 12 months when the footballers face Meath on June 15th.