Cork GAA are expected to bring a bizarre issue from last Sunday’s Munster final before the province council this week.
The incident occurred in the moments before the 4:00 throw-in Semple Stadium, when an unidentified individual in a Clare tracksuit made his way towards Anthony Nash’s Cork goalmouth, before taking a bag of sliotars and throwing them out to a gleeful Semple Stadium crowd.
The Clare man performed the deed during the National Anthem while all players were in the middle of the field, and most of the stadium’s attention was on the national flag, according to the Irish Examiner.
Opportunistic to say the least.
Cork officials were then informed by the Semple Stadium stewards about the issue, as a presumably baffled Anthony Nash made his way back to a sliotar-deprived goalmouth.
The official sliotars aren’t the cheapest of things, as all hurlers will well know, and a full bag of balls would be worth up to €100 in the majority of cases.
The Rebel’s disappointment with the lack of sliotars will have been smoothed over by a first Munster title since 2014, but according to the Cork-based newspaper, they will be pursuing the issue further.
If the individual is identified, they can expect to be issued with a suspension under the rules governing ‘misconduct at games by team officials.’ This would lead to an eight-week ban similar to the punishment Wexford manager Davy Fitzgerald received for his on-field broadside with Tipperary player Jason Forde during the league semi-final.
Some might call the Clare man a crowd-pleaser, some, a smooth criminal, but whatever his motives were, he could be in trouble.
