Five red cards. Two black cards. One penalty. All sorts of hell breaking loose.
On the latest episode of The GAA Hour, Colm Parkinson and Conor Heneghan (JOE) spoke about Donegal club football and three serious, unsavoury incidents in the space of a week.
One of the incidents had involved two teams climbing into each other in a brawl while the other two saw referees being abused and one match official locking himself into his own changing room for his own safe-keeping.
These sort of ugly scenes and altercations are completely unwanted in GAA but they are not confined to Donegal. They, unfortunately, have a habit of breaking out at grounds all over the country.
On Friday night, it was the turn of Tyrone clubs Stewartstown and Strabane.
Both sides were battling it out in the Tyrone Intermediate Football championship when, in the second half, affairs got out of hand.
Stewartstown started that half leading 1-4 to 1-1 and they extended their lead with some well-taken points. 43 minutes in and Strabane got a lifeline when they were awarded a penalty that Warner Mullen duly dispatched. Mullen then added a couple of frees and the scores were suddenly levelled.
Around the same time, Dylan McElhatton (Stewartstown) and Niall McGinty (Strabane) were shown black cards. Worse was to follow as the game entered injury time with Strabane leading by two.
First off, Stewartstown forward Gareth Devlin was sent off. Dan Lowe then levelled the scores again (2-9 to 1-12) with a couple of frees before a mass brawl broke out. Some of the scenes were captured on camera and sent to SportsJOE:
Gaelic Life’s Niall Gartland was at the game and his footage of the fracas can be seen here.
When the dust eventually settled, four more red cards were shown.
Mark McAdams and Mullen were both sent off for Strabane while Stewartstown lost James Campbell and Tiernan Rushe. You’d have to ask why referee Feargal Ward, bothered as, one minute later, it was full-time. On to extra time and both sides were back to 15 men.
Strabane 2-9 v Stewartstown 1-12 Both teams back to their full compliment of 15 for extra-time! #GAA #TyroneIFC #PhillysUpdates
— PhillyMc (@MoysPhillyMc) September 14, 2018
Strabane v stewartstown looks mental and not for football reasons #Ruck #Tyrone #Championship #GAA
— Jamie Campbell (@j_campbell77) September 14, 2018
Stewartstown kicked seven more points in extra time and ended up winning their first-round tie 1-19 to 2-13.
One suspects that a few of their number may be suspended for their next game.
Coming four months after the melée during the Armagh vs. Tyrone U20 Ulster semi-final, this is the last thing the proud GAA county needs.
