If this is the law, it doesn’t feel very just.
Diarmuid Connolly pushed a linesman. He pushed him – it’s there for all to see. In frustration, the Dublin star remonstrates with the official, puts his hand on his chest, pushes him backwards and points a finger in his face.
There’s no getting away from that. Those are bare-faced facts. They’re black and white.
He broke the rules and he should be punished accordingly.
But if GAA folk love one thing, they love a technicality. They love an admin error. They love loopholes. And they just love, by God they absolutely love allowing guilty parties to walk away scot-free after a glorious appeal of an appeal of an appeal.
In this instance, Joe Brolly is nudging Dublin in the right direction.
His justification isn’t about what Connolly did, it’s about what the officials didn’t do.
As a starting point, 2 highly experienced officials (ref & linesman), fully aware of exactly what occurred, & of the rules, take no action.
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) June 6, 2017
His argument is that Ciaran Branagan’s inaction should be telling.
Officials have a margin of discretion. Can only have decided the touch warranted no action. CCCC cannot usurp the officials' role.
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) June 6, 2017
And that the CCCC should never have gotten involved because there’s no way the officials didn’t fail to notice what happened.
CCCC can only act if officials confirm they didn't adjudicate on the incident. Meaning of adjudicate crucial. Officials can't say unaware1/2
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) June 6, 2017
Their lack of action, therefore, is their decision. They deemed it wasn’t worthy of dealing with.
If they are fully aware of the incident and choose not to act that is an adjudication, within their discretion. CCCC cannot manipulate that
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) June 6, 2017
CCCC wouldn’t have any place in intervening when it’s clear one of the officials was aware of what happened.
The point is constitutional. It concerns the integrity of the system. Law set up to permit CCCC to act only where officials miss it.
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) June 6, 2017
The most basic question to ask from all of this is why on earth would you want him to get off? Why?
You know what he did was wrong, you know it was unnecessary and you know, regardless of technicalities or weak officiating, that he should pay the price.
Punish the officials if you have to. But punish Connolly too.
Listen, this man is the best footballer in Ireland. It is a genuine pleasure to watch him kick a ball but that’s irrelevant right now and this cannot be swept under the carpet – or the carpet should sure as hell not be moved just to cover up his misgivings and expose some systemic error.
If you have to do something, uphold Connolly’s suspension for what he obviously did wrong, and then deal with the linesman and the referee and find out why someone or both of them acted incompetently and failed to deal with the issue. But do it separately because their “discretion” to not send Connolly off there and then wasn’t indicative of the offence, it was simply an insight into someone’s ineptitude to actually apply the rules properly.
If the CCCC can only act when officials miss an incident, then players can do whatever the hell they like and get away with it if officials aren’t strong enough to act themselves or if they deliberately, for whatever reason, choose not to act – even when it’s clear cut, like this incident was.
Pushing a linesman is not a natural reaction to being shouldered by three players. Striking out at one of those guys would be more instinctive and it would actually be more defensible, but walking away and putting your hand on an official in frustration is not something you just do and it isn’t something that should ever even be entertained.
Once again, the system might’ve ballsed up in its execution – once again, owing to human error. But a system that allows someone to walk away free from pushing a linesman is even more f**ked up.
No-one should be trying to assist that.
