Cork football boss 'disappointed' as controversial red card suspension upheld

CORK FOOTBALL MANAGER John Cleary has revealed his frustration at Seán Brady’s suspension being upheld by the GAA’s Central Hearings Committee.

The Ballygarvan defender was controversially red-carded for a tackle on Joe O’Connor in extra-time during the Rebels’ Munster semi-final defeat to Kerry.

Cleary described the incident as “definitely not a sending-off” following the match, but the one-game suspension was maintained despite an appeal.

“We were disappointed when he was sent off, and to doubly compound it then, he appealed and it wasn’t successful,” said Cleary.

“Anyone I spoke to all over the country couldn’t understand why it was a sending-off. Yet when he appealed it, they doubled down on it.”

Cleary outlined that Cork didn’t receive feedback on the specific rationale for upholding the red card. While they considered pursuing the appeal to a higher level, they were restricted in their options.

“There’s a new system in place where you can’t appeal the actual incident, you can only appeal the first hearing, so that’s as far as it goes,” said Cleary.

“I wasn’t aware of that until this came up. All you can do is appeal a technicality on the hearing you’ve got, you can’t appeal the incident.

“I’m sure if you brought in a lot of people in football, people around the country, I don’t think too many would have confirmed it was a sending off.”

Cleary was asked whether the incident will force managers to adjust their tackling.

“What Seán was sent off for was behaving in a manner dangerous to an opponent,” he replied.

“If they’re going to bring that into the GAA every time a fella goes for a 50-50 ball, there is an element of danger there.

“It’s disappointing, but we exhausted the avenues on it and put it behind us.

“Disappointed for Sean himself as much as anything else now. He loses out this weekend, but nothing we can do about it now.”

It adds to Cork’s concerns in the full-back line where Tommy Walsh is a doubt due to a heel injury and Kevin O’Donovan is a long-term absentee.

On the plus side, Conor Corbett and Luke Fahy have been taking part in training since the Kerry game.

For Clyda Rovers star Corbett, it has been a long road back from his cruciate injury.

“We’ve two more training sessions to go and then we’ll decide,” said Cleary.

“He picked up, as all cruciate injuries do, little nicks along the way after coming back. Even if you look at Paddy Lynch from Cavan, I think it’s 13 months he’s out. Conor is just over eight so he’s made huge strides to get back on a field.

“The last thing we want to do is be putting him at risk now. Whereas his injury may be deemed okay, whether he’s physically ready to go, we’ll just wait until the last minute before deciding.”