Gaelic Games SuspensionsFormer All Star and Kerry senior footballer Paul Galvin was last night handed a six-month ban for abusing a match official and also discrediting the GAA.

Former Kerry All-Ireland winner Eamon Breen also received six months from the date of the match while Paul Galvin's younger brother Raymond got 16 weeks for verbal abuse of the referee.

The General Purposes Committee of the North Kerry Board considered referee Pat Sheehy's report of the North Kerry Championship game between All-Ireland junior champions Finuge and Ballylongford in Ballybunnion on Saturday, November 12th.

The recommendation of this committee was to find Paul Galvin, who it is believed admitted striking an opponent off the ball in the same game, guilty of conduct that discredited the association and he was suspended for 24 weeks starting from the December 21st (the date of the meeting) and this is to run concurrently with his 12-week ban.

This ban will mean because it is a category A offence that Galvin will miss out not alone on Kerry's National League campaign but also the opening round of the championship against Waterford.

Galvin could appeal the severity of the ban that has caught most seasoned observers by surprise but he will have to appeal to the Munster Council.

Considering that former Kerry panellist Seán O'Sullivan has just returned from Australia, it could not come at worse time for Galvin who was man of the match when his club Finuge won the All-Ireland junior club title in Portlaoise last April.

Aidan Galvin, chairman of Finuge, said he was devastated at the sanctions. "These are our top players and the club will be hit hard. It was devastating news for the lads and the club.

"The players admitted their wrong-doing but appear to have been hit with draconian sentences, particularly Paul Galvin. We will meet the players next week and consider the situation but I expect we will appeal."

His intercounty team-mate, Tomas Ó Sé, was red-carded recently for an off-the-ball incident and got only a month.