THE GAA only weeks ago spelled out the rules governing extra-time in matches, confirming the fact that additional periods played at the end of draws constitute, for most purposes, a new match.

This emerged as Roscommon County Board yesterday withdrew any plans to challenge the result of last weekend’s All-Ireland minor defeat by Kerry. Basing their decision on a fuller reading of the rules, the county wished their opponents well in the remaining stages of the championship.

The putative challenge was to have been based on Kerry having used nine replacements during the match, as opposed to the five permitted during normal time and a further three allowed in extra- time.

With a neat sense of timing the GAA’s management committee recently spelled out the rules governing this situation, which is in accordance with Kerry’s view that a team is permitted to field any 15 it wants at the start of extra-time.

Part two of the Official Guide, governing playing rules, states at 2.5 (ii) (c): “For extra-time, players shall be from the list submitted to the referee prior to the game.” In other words Kerry were within their rights to line out whatever 15 players they wanted at the start of the additional period – providing they came from the match list of 24 (30 in senior championship matches) given to the referee.

(The only situation in which extra-time does not count as an additional match is in the case of a player shown two yellow cards, who may not reappear during the match.) This clarification was made at the management meeting on July 17th and was intended to settle the ambiguity that has clouded the issue.

“We wouldn’t have been familiar with that interpretation,” said Roscommon county secretary Brian Stenson, “but we have been advised of the situation.”

Accordingly the following statement was posted on the county’s website yesterday evening. “Following discussions earlier today with Croke Park officials, Coisde Contae Ros Comáin have decided not to lodge an objection to the award of the minor football quarter-final to Ciarraí.

“The rules governing the composition of a team starting extra-time would appear, on the face of it, to allow multiple changes to be made at that stage which do not count as substitutes, something which would appear not to be widely known. We would like to congratulate Kerry on their victory and wish them all the best in their semi-final.”

Meath, meanwhile, are not expected to release a team until this morning at the earliest. The delay comes about as the county await news of Stephen Bray’s appearance before last night’s meeting of the Central Hearings Committee in Croke Park.

Bray was shown a straight red card during the second half of last weekend’s qualifier victory over Limerick. The infraction took place off the ball and was advised to referee Pádraig Hughes by one of his umpires in the 66th minute.

The absence of the team captain would be a major setback for the county, as Bray shot four points from play in the win over Limerick. There wasn’t a lot of optimism about the prospects of success of last night’s hearing but should the player be suspended, he will still have two avenues of appeal, to the Central Appeals Committee and the Disputes Resolution Authority, the GAA’s independent tribunal.

Finally, the GAA has stressed it was open to the association to insist next October’s International Rules series go ahead. Operations manager Feargal McGill said yesterday the GAA had instead accepted the bona fides of the AFL position that financial difficulties made this year’s trip to Ireland difficult to sustain. “I don’t think we’ve made the point forcibly enough in public,” he said, “but the Australians did say that if we insisted they would have travelled. So we could have pushed really hard for it but it wouldn’t have been good for future relationships between the organisations.

“We’re aware there has been a degree of scepticism about the Australian position but having discussed the situation with AFL officials it’s important to point out that they have a lot of fixed-term contracts in their total outgoings.

“We operate differently, as most of our outgoings are paid out in support grants, which are by their nature adjustable.”