The stuff on the pitch was fairly nasty and now the battle between Dromid Pearses and Derrytresk is getting fairly unpleasant off the pitch too.
In today’s Irish Independent, former Tyrone chairman Pat Darcy wades into the row, and opens up an old wound; Tadhg Kennelly’s clash with Nicholas Murphy in the 2009 All-Ireland final.
“The Derrytresk club probably feels it’s being singled out as the instigators and I can see how they would feel about that. It should be left to the disciplinary authorities to investigate and deal with,” said Darcy.
“But there have been violent incidents on the field in all provinces in recent times. It’s a problem for the GAA as a whole. It doesn’t just happen in Tyrone – it’s happened down south quite a lot.
“People need to look objectively and come to the conclusion that this sort of brawling on a pitch is unacceptable and has to be stopped.”
Darcy also said it “takes two to tango” before going on to reference Kennelly adding: “If he did that in a club game and spectators ran onto the pitch and there’s no protection, who’s to blame there?”
Derrytresk player Kevin Campbell is also quoted in the paper.
“Dromid Pearses got their story out first and people jumped to conclusions. Automatically because we’re from Tyrone and it’s happened here before (people blame us),” said Campbell.
He goes on to claim that a Derrytresk official was struck first on the sideline and as the story gets more and more complex we still wait news on the referees report and what action, if any, the authorities will take.
The view from Tyrone seems to be that they are being picked on while the Kerry side have gone quiet, letting the images and video do the talking. It is up to the GAA now to sift through this, find the truth and punish those involved, on whichever side.
And do it quickly.
