To Play or Not To Play

A few incidents in Tyrone football over the weekend which makes we wonder just were the GAA is headed and begs the question what punishment should a club receive.

Both centre around the exact same issue, two clubs who decided not to field teams for a league game because they were preparing for championship semi finals this weekend.

Dromore are the first club and biggest culprits here. After last years row with Carrickmore both clubs were told they wouldnt be allowed to qualify for the league semi finals irrespective of their final league position, this being part of the punishment they received. In a recent minor game between Dromore and Ardboe the game ended in a draw and though the ref indicated extra time was to be played Ardboe refused to play saying that it was too dark to play and that player safety was an issue. Dromore took this to the CCCC and got Ardboe thrown out of the competition. A week or so later they met in the Senior Championship, a game Dromore won comfortably. However it later emerged that Dromore had brought on a young lad near the end (only a minute to go) who had been sent off in a minor game and was thus ineligible to play!!!

Ardboe were told by CCCC that whilst they were aware of this incident they couldnt do anything unless they received a submission from the Ardboe club asking for the incident to be investigated. Ardboe duly done this and Dromore got fined £200!!!!

The two clubs were to meet yesterday in a league game and Dromore refused to send a team to the loughshore saying that they were preparing for a championship semi final this weekend and because of the ruling that they werent allowed to win the league anyway it wasnt in their interests to send a team up. I have to say this has disgusted me, who made this decision and did they put any thought into what the repercussions were for the GAA in Tyrone, have they now set a trend were other clubs will do this.

I dont care if your preparing for a championship semi final (against my own club ironically) or that you cant win the league, you spent years never having a chance of winning leagues or championships but you still fulfilled all your fixtures.

The second one i referred to was Ciaran Gourleys club Rock who also failed to field a team against the Moy for the same reason, preparing for a semi final!!!

We are getting as bad as the soccer, we look for every opportunity to break the rules in a seemingly legal fashion, or throw a tantrum until we get our own way.

I think the County Board in Tyrone should hand down the stiffest punishment possible for this sh!t, i would fine both clubs heavily and relegate them to the bottom tier of Tyrone football.

totally agree boc but theres part of me believes that clubs from east tyrone are getting a raw deal. had ardboe been in dromores postion i firmly believe they would have got the boot out of the championship over the ineligible player.

redhandman wrote:totally agree boc but theres part of me believes that clubs from east tyrone are getting a raw deal. had ardboe been in dromores postion i firmly believe they would have got the boot out of the championship over the ineligible player.

was there not a situation in Down were a young lad got a 6 month ban for playing for seniors after being sent off in an U21 game, same old problem here in that there is no consistency.

What the CCCC are effectively saying here is that it is ok to play an ineligible player. I agree with you to a point RHM, Dromore should have been booted out of the championship end off