Offaly could be in trouble for fielding Ken Casey v Longford

[Bord na Mona man]

Offaly may lose point over ineligible player

RISING Offaly football star Ken Casey is facing the prospect of a lengthy suspension if it is proved that he was ineligible for last Sunday's league clash with Longford.

The match ended in a draw, with Casey playing an influential role as Offaly picked up their third point of the campaign.

But it has transpired that the player should not have been on the field because he had been reported for verbally abusing a referee in a Leinster under-21 first round match on the previous week against Carlow.

Meath referee Joey Curley reported the player for the abuse after sending him off on a second yellow card.

Casey was offered a personal hearing last week, or the option to have the charge dealt with straight away.

Under new rules, by opting for the personal hearing, which took place at the Leinster Council Headquarters on Monday night, the player was not technically eligible to play league football on Sunday.

The Leinster Council last night issued their judgement on the verbal abuse case and suspended the player for four weeks, back-dating the ban to February 18.

Now, if Casey is found to be ineligible for the Longford match, he could be facing another even bigger suspension, possibly for six months.

If Longford object to the result and are successful, they will be given both points from the match.

Failure to register an objection could still leave Offaly pointless from their trip to Longford.

The matter will now be placed in the hands of Croke Park for judgement and is being viewed as a strong test case for the new disciplinary procedures.

Colm Keys

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ ... e_id=15309

[Bord na Mona man]

That's all we need!
More trouble like last year's six subs crisis.
I suppose the only hope we have is to plead ignorance of the new procedures and hope Longford don't pursue the matter "to the ends fo the earth" like those Kildare tossers last year.
However this appears to be a more serious infringment of the rules.

[the bare biffo]

The match ended in a draw, with Casey playing an influential role as Offaly picked up their third point of the campaign.

http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/ ... e_id=15309

Not sure how he was reckoned to be influential, but anyways.
Where does the real blame lie here. Is it inept administration by the county board or is it impossible for any amateur administrators to keep up with the GAA's constantly changing and labyrinth like disciplinary procedures.

I go with the latter.

[Archangel]

I suppose the only hope we have is to plead ignorance of the new procedures and hope Longford don't pursue the matter "to the ends fo the earth" like those Kildare tossers last year.

The big question is 'IF' Longford appeal the result, and if they do, I think we're in for another legal rumble.
The GAA rulebook is the foundation of all these problems, well, the everchanging rulebook is the problem. I didn't blame Kildare for chasing the 6-subs issue last year, as there were misleading rules and dubious interpretations doing the rounds in both camps.,..while previously Sligo had 'done' Kildare for other innocuous infringements.
With regard to Ken Casey, who played but didn't score, if he was under any suspension or investigation he would normally be ineligible to play for anybody. The management & selection committee are at fault, they should have seen the 'worse case scenario' and not played Casey.

[Lone Shark]

I thought Kildare were out of order last year, not because the rules may or may not have been on their side, but because they were looking to gain something that they didn't deserve - by no logic did the extra substitution with 2 minutes to go affect the game.

This is different - whether he had a quiet game or not, he was started and influenced the match. The county board knew this hearing was happening on Monday and didn't do anything to stop this which was boneheaded to say the least.

I want to put my pro-Offaly cap on here, but I can't - unless subsequent info comes to light that tells us that an official from Offaly sought clarification on his status and was told that he was clear to play, this was very poor form. It's all the more harsh because it could be the cause of us being in division 4 next year, not getting a backdoor shot for two years and one of our brightest prospects missing a whole summer of football.

[Archangel]

The BIG issue here is the potential loss of 1 measely point,....but...this point could be the difference between Div 3 & 4 or Qualifiers & Murphy Cup...

it's potentially huge. And if someone know there was ANY doubt and risked playing Ken Casey....shoot him!!!

[Lone Shark]

Hoganstand reckon we're going to contest this .....


The Offaly County Board is continuing to insist that they were right to field Ken Casey in last Sunday’s NFL clash with Longford.

A doubt has emerged over whether Casey was eligible to play last weekend after he was sent off in a recent Leinster Under 21 championship match with Carlow.

The Leinster Council has moved to confirm that Casey cannot play in next weekend’s Under 21 tie with Longford but can’t say whether he was eligible to play last Sunday because the NFL isn’t their business.

It is understood that the Faithful County believed that the players was suspended only for the under 21s because he was sent off playing for the under 21s.


Now from my point of view, why on earth would you bring this on to yourself? Surely there must be someone that could have been contacted during the week to clear this up? I mean for the love of God.....

[black and red exile]

Quite right LS, we need this like a kick in the head, and how is it that it is Offaly again who are caught up in this sort of crap. Lets all pray that this latest drama will be cleared up an awful lot quicker than the 3 weeks it took to sort out the Kildare subs episode from last summer, because I don't think anybody, [county boards, players or supporters] can stomach another legal epic.

[the bare biffo]

Surely there must be someone that could have been contacted during the week to clear this up? I mean for the love of God.....

I would say because of the way things have gone in recent years with appeal , counter appeal and court cases you would be hard pushed to get any individual to offer advice on this, even off the record.

But that said, as you said, if there was a doubt, then the safe option should have been taken.

I still think though that the GAA are creating a mess with unclear and everchanging rules.

One thing that I don't understand though is why Casey himself should be punished any further for taking the field. Are players also expected to be experts on the disciplinary rulings. Surely any punishment to be handed out should be directed at team management and administrators.

[Lone Shark]

Surely there must be someone that could have been contacted during the week to clear this up? I mean for the love of God.....

I would say because of the way things have gone in recent years with appeal , counter appeal and court cases you would be hard pushed to get any individual to offer advice on this, even off the record.

But that said, as you said, if there was a doubt, then the safe option should have been taken.

That the disciplinary procedures in the GAA would not inspire confidence is a given - however there is something grievously wrong if a county team is unsure as to whether or not a player is suspended on a tuesday evening when they are sitting down to pick their team for the weekend, and there is nobody who will confirm whether or not it is the case. I mean that's just nonsense - you check with the disciplinary committee and they tell you "we can't go on the record- you'll just have to roll the dice and see". It can't have come to that.

I still think though that the GAA are creating a mess with unclear and everchanging rules.

One thing that I don't understand though is why Casey himself should be punished any further for taking the field. Are players also expected to be experts on the disciplinary rulings. Surely any punishment to be handed out should be directed at team management and administrators.

The rules are a mess, and I agree that this should excuse Casey himself to a considerable degree - however this doesn't excuse the county board one iota as far as I'm concerned. We all know they're a mess, and with two exceptions on this DB that I know of, none of us have ever sat in a county board meeting. Surely somebody in there somewhere would have seen the team picked and thought that maybe the question needed to be asked?



There is one other point to this which is going unsaid as well which has got lost in all the confusion. Ken Casey may not have known he was suspended last Sunday, but to my mind he deserved to be and four weeks was very lenient. Referees in GAA have it hard enough - abuse of the referee needs to be cracked down on aggressively. I have no idea why Gavin, Buckley, Costello et al do it in the first place - I did it for a schools challenge game once and it was stressful. All this is drawing attention away from the fact that he was bang out of order to do what he did, and in an ideal world our county board would have enforced his suspension at all levels to send the appropriate message out.

[Hyper]

I think I highlighted the fact of Ken Casey being in trouble when I put up the team last week, even us mere mortals could forsee that!

[The Biff]

Very bad form for this situation to have arisen in probably the most crucial League campaign in a decade. I may not be close to Rule-Makers and Disciplinary circles, but we have spent years in the knowledge that any GAA Suspension probably applies to all levels unless you definitely know otherwise. There have certainly been cock-ups on this matter (and I agree with LS that Casey himself needs his fair share for abusing a referee in the first place). It is hard to imagine how we are going to come out of this lightly.

[OffalyManAway]

Given what happened last year with the multi subs debacle we can't expect, and dont deserve any leniency from the GAA when they look at this. I've never seen such ineptitude from a county board. Muppets one and all. Heads should roll for letting it come to this, regardless of the outcome.

"Sweet baby Jesus and the orphans"

[the bare biffo]

Guys see the extract below from the GAA Official Guide 2007 version from the GAA.ie site

I have highlighted what I think is relevant to Casey's case. Unless there are some more rules in some other codes, my reading of it is that Casey was elligible for the Senior team.

Any views.

(b) Misconduct at Games, which consists of five Categories
of Infractions by Players which occur on or in the
vicinity of the Field of Play, and which occur
immediately before, during or after a Game:
Category I
Being ordered off on foot of a second Cautionable
Infraction.
Penalty:
(i) Fixed Penalty: Debarment from playing for
the remainder of the Game, to include any
extra-time
(ii) Fixed Penalty on Repeat Infraction: 2 weeks
Suspension in the same Code and at the same
Level
Category II
Abusive language towards a Referee, Umpire,
Linesman, or Sideline Official; Striking or
attempting to strike with hurley, with minimal
force; Kicking or attempting to kick, with minimal
143
85
force; Striking or attempting to strike with arm,
elbow, hand or knee; Behaving in any way which is
dangerous to an opponent; Spitting at an
opponent; Contributing to a melee.
Penalty:
(i) Minimum: 4 weeks Suspension in the same
Code and at the same Level, inclusive of the
next Game in the same Competition of that
Competition Year, even if that Game falls
outside the Suspension time period.
(ii) Minimum on Repeat Infraction: 8 weeks
Suspension in the same Code and at the same
Level as that at which the Infractions were
committed, inclusive of the next Game in the
same Competition of that Competition Year,
even if that Game falls outside the Suspension
time period.

[Treasurer]

There's now a distinction between abusive and threatening language......

Category IV
Minor physical interference with (e.g. laying a hand on, pushing, pulling or jostling), threatening or abusive conduct towards, or threatening language to, a Referee, Umpire, Linesman or Sideline Official.

Penalty:
(i) Minimum: 12 weeks Suspension in all Codes
and at all Levels.
(ii) Minimum on Repeat Infraction: 24 weeks Suspension in all Codes and at all Levels.

The fact the he was suspened for four weeks indicates that it was treated as a category II offence.

It's all too easy say the county board slipped up, should have got clarification etc, but I'd be more than surprised to find Christy Todd mis-interpreting a rule.