Leinster Council to hear Dublin club appeals

Na Fianna and Kilmacud Crokes will look to the Leinster Council to overturn rulings made by the Games Administration Committee (GAC) of the Dublin County Board.

On Tuesday night, the Dublin GAC ruled that Na Fianna had broken the substitution rule in their quarter-final win over Raheny the previous Saturday by using a sixth player as a blood replacement in addition to the five permitted substitutions.

Under rules, teams are limited to a maximum of 20 players and therefore the game was awarded to Raheny.

The main contention here appears to be the wording of rule 140 and the amendment made by Central Council on August 17th of this year with regard to blood substitutions.

This was as an upshot of a breach of rule in the Munster football final replay between Tipperary and Cork.

Na Fianna delivered their appeal to the Leinster Council yesterday afternoon and a specially-convened meeting of the provincial body will take place tonight to discuss and hopefully resolve the matter.

Kilmacud Crokes expect to furnish the Leinster Council with their appeal this morning and it will then be up to the provincial body to decide when that will be heard. Common sense suggests that both appeals will take place tonight, as both county semi-finals are scheduled for tomorrow.

Crokes had objected to the GAC of the Dublin County Board about the eligibility of UCD forward and former Galway intercounty player John Divilly.

The case focused on a rule that states that a player may play with a collegiate side and his home club, thereby playing in two different county championships.

Divilly played with St Mary's, Leixlip, and it is believed that Kilmacud Crokes' assertion is that this is not his home club; the club he grew up in is Kilkerrin-Clonbeirne of Galway. The Dublin GAC threw out Kilmacud's objection.

It was also confirmed yesterday that the south Dublin club's appeal was not dismissed on a technicality, but rather on the substantive merit of the appeal.

If the former was the case then the Leinster Council could only recommend that the case was re-heard by the Dublin County Board.

As things stand, however, they are in a position now to make a ruling, either upholding or overturning the original ruling.

One thing which is certain is that the other semi-final of the Dublin club championship involving St Vincent's and Lucan Sarsfields will go ahead tomorrow.