In yesterday’s poll we asked whether the punishment handed down to All-Ireland junior club football finalists Derrytresk was fair – and it seems that there’s a huge difference of opinion all over Ireland.
Derrytresk to the better of Dromid Pearses of Kerry in a controversial semi-final last month and will face Clonbur of Galway in the All-Ireland final next week.
They will be without eight suspended players for that game, however, while the Central Competitions Control Committee of the GAA also imposed a fine of €5000 on the Tyrone club.
Their opponents on the day escaped with significantly lesser sanctions, with three Dromid Pearses players given suspensions and the club dealt a €2000 fine – which, incidentally, they say they will struggle to pay.
Our poll centred on Derrytresk, however, and whether the punishment was fair and just, whether they had been harshly treated or whether it hadn’t gone far enough – some observers have argued that they should have been thrown out of the championship and prevented from playing Clonbur in the final.
JOE readers voted in their hundreds, and there was a three-way split, with a large minority believing that the GAA had got it right.
Most respondents felt the punishment was too harsh, but almost as many reckoned it hadn’t gone far enough.
The job of a GAA disciplinary committee is a thankless task, eh?
