Wexford GAA set to sign off on 96-week suspension for St Joseph’s mentor

Wexford GAA are expected to sign off in the next 24 hours on the 96-week suspension handed down to the St Joseph’s mentor, involved in incidents with match officials after a junior A football championship match.

Referee Michael Lannigan and one of his umpires were allegedly assaulted and the gardaí informed after the match at the end of September between St Joseph’s and Our Lady’s Island at Whiterock Hill

Reports that the mentor had received the lengthy ban surfaced at the weekend after the county’s competitions control committee had recommended the 96 weeks. To date, there has been no information as to whether the recommendation had been accepted or if a hearing has been sought.

There is however a 48-hour window in which such applications have to be filed and it is not clear whether this time limit has been met, regardless of whether a hearing is being sought.

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Wexford has been one of the counties centrally involved in high-profile misbehaviour at its club matches and some weeks previously a Naomh Éanna player received a 72-week suspension, also for entanglement with a referee after a junior hurling championship match against Clonard.

In response to these incidents, the county board had to deal with concerned referees who were considering following the example of their Roscommon counterparts in withdrawing services for a whole weekend’s fixtures after an assault.

Eventually, they opted not to do so but not before expressing frustration that the disciplinary processes, which allow misbehaving players four chances to challenge any suspension — by declining a recommended punishment, going before a hearing, appealing that decision and finally going to the GAA’s arbitration tribunal, the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) — before it sticks.

Wexford officials argued that they have been running a tight ship and of 188 red cards across all club fixtures, just two had been overturned and one of them had been accepted as an error.

Since then, strenuous attempts were made to overturn another red card with a challenge to the DRA on the Sunday morning of the county football final. County footballer Ben Brosnan disputed a red-card suspension after being sent off in the semi-final.

The attempt failed, however, and he sat out his club Castletown’s surprise win over champions Shelmaliers. The club will now take on Laois champions Portarlington in next Sunday’s Leinster club first round.

Support from players

On a more heartening note for referees, all six championship-winning captains in Wexford at the weekend acknowledged the work of match officials in their victory speeches.

Next weekend marks the GAA’s Respect the Referee initiative focused on valuing match officials and punishing transgressions against them, rolled out over Saturday and Sunday at county finals up and down the country.

Launching the initiative last week, GAA president Larry McCarthy said that the move was “very important because it is kick-starting a campaign to try and change the culture of the organisation. Obviously what has happened in the last couple of weeks is absolutely and utterly unacceptable.”