Mayo manager John O’Mahony gives GAA a red card

O’Mahony gives GAA a red card

Mike Finnerty

Mayo manager John O’Mahony has criticised the GAA’s ‘change in policy’ in relation to upgrading yellow cards to red cards after it emerged that Mark Ronaldson may miss the next two rounds of the National League after being cited by the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) last week.
Ronaldson has requested a hearing at Croke Park later this week after being informed that a yellow card he received in the closing stages of Mayo’s win over Tyrone ten days ago had been upgraded to a red card. This would mean an automatic four-week suspension from the date of the game in Omagh.
However, the Shrule/Glencorrib forward was allowed to line out for Mayo in the FBD League final last weekend as his hearing had not been held.
“Mark has requested a hearing and hopefully that will be held sometime this week,” John O’Mahony told The Mayo News. “Obviously, that is sub judice at the moment so I don’t want to talk very much about it [the specific case].
“I think there’s a whole lot of confusion out there though,” he added. “All of the managers were in Croke Park in January to talk about the mark and all the other things... This [a change of policy] was never mentioned.
“The GAA have come out and said, ‘If you behave yourself, you’re okay’. At that rate, we should just let five or six cameras into every match and forget about the referee.
“If there wasn’t a change in policy, if this was the case all the time, why didn’t they investigate the All-Ireland final incident when Tadhg Kennelly got involved? Where does it finish?
“If a county goes through a DVD of a match, and picks up something that one of the opposition has done to one of their players, can they send in that tape? Can that be investigated by the CCCC?
“I’m all for clean play, I wouldn’t condone dirty play, but we needed to know where the goalposts were. When the GAA brought in the new disciplinary rules, in relation to the yellow cards, they did a great job in explaining it to managers, and getting us to explain it to players.
“But this has come like a bolt out of the blue, and three weeks into the National League all the talk is about ‘trial by television’. It’s not about the mark or the square ball. That itself says where we’re at. I hope the confusion will be cleared up quickly.”