Gaelic Games/ National Football League: It wasn't supposed to be like this. The opening weekend of the Allianz National Football League had as its star fixture the meeting in Omagh of All-Ireland champions Tyrone and Leinster champions Dublin, a hoped for re-enactment of the counties' All-Ireland quarter-final last August.

The Dubs know the score on this sort of thing. Three times in the past four seasons they've been fixed up with the All-Ireland champions for the first dance of the NFL, bringing their fabled, if by now somewhat faded, glamour to opening day.

It says something about what came to pass that, having sent off four players and issued 14 yellow cards, referee Paddy Russell was escorted off the pitch to the consensus criticism that he had been far too lenient. But such was the level of indiscipline, as manifest in a throbbing undercurrent of unpleasantness and three separate mass brawls, that few were prepared to blame him too much.

"God almighty couldn't have refereed that," said Tyrone manager Mickey Harte.

The melees came in the eighth minute and the 42nd minute, which flared up again almost immediately as Dublin's Alan Brogan was leaving the field on a red card. This time the participants were ranged along the sideline, fighting just beside the managements and close to spectators.

After this subsided, Russell selected from the heaving mass - perhaps by drawing lots - Colin Holmes for the next red card.

Surprisingly, it was Dublin, with their five newcomers, who kept concentration better and, after some bizarre misses and wrong options by the home side, Paul Caffrey's team shot the points to win a low-scoring match 1-9 to 1-6, with Tomás Quinn the top scorer with all but two points of his side's total.

But the unpleasantness never really subsided. Footballer of the year Stephen O'Neill and Dublin's debutant centrefielder Denis Bastic walked in the latter stages after each received a second yellow card.

There was a slight crowd disturbance in the stand and, in the dying minutes, Caffrey called his replacements down from their allotted place above the sideline because he said he feared for their safety, surrounded as they were by home supporters.

In the aftermath, Caffrey was reticent, pointedly ignoring some questions on his reaction to the unsightly incidents.

Later, just as he was being interviewed by TG4, a home supporter heckled the Dublin manager, who as he was about to answer abruptly stopped and walked away from the cameras back to the dressing-room.

These events are going to be a major challenge for the GAA's Central Disciplinary Committee. Referee Russell will file his report and the CDC will deal with those he cites for misconduct. They will also be free to review video evidence and fill in any gaps they feel exist in the report given that amidst the disorder, the referee - even though he was careful to stand back and observe the mayhem - is unlikely to have spotted all offenders.