Matty Forde

[bandage]

The Purple and Gold:

A father and son
They stood hand in hand
As they watched Wexford play
From the back of the stand
And the words that he said
I'll hear when I'm old
It is a beauty to behold
When you see the purple and gold

Oh the purple and gold
Is my heart and my soul
From the men of today
To the heroes of old
Oh the purple and gold
Is a dream I still hold
It was a privilege I was told
To wear the purple and gold

I can still see them now
On the All Ireland day
The Rackards stood proud
By God could they play
And the Quigleys stood tall
Every man brave and bold
It is a beauty to behold
When you see the purple and gold

Oh the purple and gold
Is my heart and my soul
From the men of today
To the heroes of old
Oh the purple and gold
Is a dream I still hold
It was a privilege I was told
To wear the purple and gold (x2)

Fade out and scream.

Come on the bhoys of Wexford. Do me fooking proud. Enniskillen here we fooking come. Steamboatsam isn't going because he's afraid to enter the 6 counties. That's why he didn't come to Clones last week too - he thought Monaghan was part of the 6! We'll fight you with Matty Forde. We'll fight you without Matty Forde. Either way we'll put up one hell of a fight.

Make no mistake they are a very good side - the second team in a row we have faced that held Armagh to a draw (a lucky omen perhaps?) - and are full of energy, drive and enthusiasm (all the things I was accused of being lacking in work!). Equally they have some very good players too. Barry Owens is far and away the best full back in the country and the corner back Goan looks very good and, depending on the disciplinary verdict, could pick up Forde. They also have pacy wing forwards in Little and the other guy whose name escapes me and an excellent midfield with Irish international Marty McGrath coming back from injury the last day and he'll be partnered by Liam McBarron. Where they appear to be weak is up front - as I said their half forward is full of workers but not score takers. Their full forward line wouldn't drive fear into the opposition either - probably a good thing seeing how our full back line performed against Meath and Offaly.

But if Forde is suspended what an ideal chance for all our other players to stand up and send a message around the country that we are a talented team without him. Sure he makes an incredible difference but we won't fear them at all even if we're without him. As far as I know we have no additional injury worries, stamina won't be an issue given the buzz of last week's victory and neither will determination either. Midfield is going to be crucial in this battle and with Stafford and Bradley in there we have a great chance. Up front we really require Deely, Kinsella, Hudson et al to step up to the plate and deliver.

We're going to fooking win this.

[bandage]

Matty plays as those fooks on the disciplnary committee didn't have the towns halls to ban him in his absence after he again failed to turn up for his hearing last night. Kudos to our lawyer. I'm sure iamthelaw and humbug would be proud. Not that he had a case to answer anyway. Let's go and win the fooking thing now.

[bandage]

Just as I'm about to leave those fooks announce a 12 week ban after meeting at 11am this morning. Wexford may opt to play Forde as they won't have received official notification via letter or email. Not sure whether the DRA is convening or not. Not even sure if Wexford will play now. They have vowed to do everything possible to protect his reputation. This could go to the High Courts. There are corporate people in Wexford who would stump up any amount of money to take this further. This could hold up the championship. This is unprecedented. I am incandescent. Siege mentality.

Anthony Lynch got off last night by the way. How they can ban Forde when only he knows whether it was intentional or not and clear a guy who blatantly elbowed the Kerry player in the face is beyond me. This defies all logic and is ridiculous. The GAA are totally incompetent and I am advocating a breakaway organisation led by the players!

Fooking cunts.

[humbug]

bandage said:

Just as I'm about to leave those fooks announce a 12 week ban after meeting at 11am this morning. Wexford may opt to play Forde as they won't have received official notification via letter or email. Not sure whether the DRA is convening or not. Not even sure if Wexford will play now. They have vowed to do everything possible to protect his reputation. This could go to the High Courts. There are corporate people in Wexford who would stump up any amount of money to take this further. This could hold up the championship. This is unprecedented. I am incandescent. Siege mentality.

Anthony Lynch got off last night by the way. How they can ban Forde when only he knows whether it was intentional or not and clear a guy who blatantly elbowed the Kerry player in the face is beyond me. This defies all logic and is ridiculous. The GAA are totally incompetent and I am advocating a breakaway organisation led by the players!

Fooking cunts.

The CDC has made the right call here Bandage. I appreciate your passion but your passion is clouding your judgement. Who does Forde think he is not turning up for a disciplinary hearing?...the fookin neck of him to do that...no respect. I just hope he can start acting like a man now and take his punishment. I'll be fookin sickened if this ends up in the High Court.

[lyonsee]

Hear hear Humbug. He deserves his ban. What he did was an act of cowardice and it was quite obviously intentional. He clearly looks down at his victim. He's not looking down when the actual stamp/whatever you want to call it, happened, but just before. It's blatant.

On the other hand Anthony Lynch elbowed another player quite intentionally, never denied his intention and took his punishment - a red card.

[bandage]

lyonsee said:

On the other hand Anthony Lynch elbowed another player quite intentionally, never denied his intention and took his punishment - a red card.

If he accepted or took his punishment why did he appeal his red card? Why is he allowed to play the replay later today? Because the chairman of the CDC is from Cork that's why. A fooking joke.

Humbug, the reason he didn't go to the hearing was because his lawyer sought additional clarification on why they were calling him up given that they had not called up other players retrospectively for acts committed during the championship. I believe he listed a number of such incidents including Martin O'Rourke's 3 kicks last week that are mentioned above.

No clarification was forthcoming so he was advised not to attend which I think is fair enough. I take issue with the point that Forde should show 'some respect' amd 'start acting like a man' - he was manly enough taking hits and abuse in Monaghan last week. And show some respect to the CDC? Not jobs for the boys, more like appeals for the boys. I still can't fathom how they can view a video tape of Anthony Lynch looking squarely up and down that guy, showing blatant intention and elbowing him in the head and give him a reprieve. Yet ban Forde on opinion and conjecture because nobody other than Matty can say whether it was intentional or not. As Ciarán Deely said Matty told me he didn't mean it and that's good enough for all of us. It's rotten and stinks to the core.

I am actually outraged by this. How fooking dare they suspend him 5 hours before a game. The blatant disrespect this shows not only to Forde but to the Wexford team, management and supporters defies logic and belief. It literally threw all their plans into disarray and forced a change of personnel and game plan in the hours leading up to the game.

I also think that seeing as Wexford have another avenue open to them (the DRA) that it is ridiculous that the game went ahead. I would have either played Forde anyway, insisted on a postponement until the DRA was convened to hear the appeal or not played the game at all and taken it to the High Court if they threw us out of the competition.

The CDC do not have a legal leg to stand on and I expect that Forde will win his appeal. But what good is that to us now? The players are professional in all but name yet they are being governed by a bunch of amatuer cunts who treat them with total disrespect. The stupid fooking bastards.

[iamthelaw]

I thought the timing of the decision could hardly have been more unfair to Wexford, the result being that hours before a crucial game, Wexford management would not have known whether or not they could plan with their best player, from an incident which happened two weeks ago. Though maybe it was the case that the CRC were giving Forde the chance to defend himself, in which case I suppose the timing of the decision was effectively due to him.

Humbug, it's hard to see that Forde's presence at the hearing would have made a difference. Presumably the CRC knew anyway he was taking the matter seriously, & any expression of remorse would - in implying guilt - have just confirmed their decision. Maybe it would have been a 10-week, or 8-week ban then, but who cares really?

Lyonsee, doesn't the lifting of the ban on Lynch in fact mean that the CRC don't think he elbowed intentionally, rather than that he's taken his punishment?

[humbug]

bandage said:

I won't defend what he did because it looked bad

[bandage]

humbug said:

bandage said:

I won't defend what he did because it looked bad

I said it looked bad as it did but I never criticised him for it. In fact having seen all the angles later on in the week I fully supported him, have done and will continue to do so.

Did anyone take my Cork at 4/1 advice? I did but stupidly stuck them in adouble with Meath. Have had a shocking few weeks betting wise.

[iamthelaw]

bandage said:

lyonsee said:

On the other hand Anthony Lynch elbowed another player quite intentionally, never denied his intention and took his punishment - a red card.

If he accepted or took his punishment why did he appeal his red card? Why is he allowed to play the replay later today? ...

I still can't fathom how they can view a video tape of Anthony Lynch looking squarely up and down that guy, showing blatant intention and elbowing him in the head and give him a reprieve.

I've heard that Lynch successfully appealed on the grounds that the referee's report said the red card was for striking an opponent. Had the report said "for attempting to strike", Lynch wouldn't have a leg to stand on, but he got away with it on the technicality that he was sent off for something he didn't do (apparently there was no actual contact between elbow and Kerryman). Poor mistake on the ref's part, and the CRC would have had no option under the rules but to rescind, but whoever made the decision to appeal that one is a disgrace; I think I've asked it before, but whatever happened to honour?

[lyonsee]

bandage said:

humbug said:

I said it looked bad as it did but I never criticised him for it. In fact having seen all the angles later on in the week I fully supported him, have done and will continue to do so.

As I recall you called the incident disgraceful or something to that effect in a text message to me a couple of hours after the game. But you're dead right the timing of the decision was ridiculous and unfair. Correct decision though imo.

Must hold my hand up and say I was wrong about Lynch though.

[humbug]

Just watched the Sunday Game there and I am growing ever more thick over Fordegate. Quirke was saying that he didn't have a chance to defend himself yet he failed to turn up for three different hearings. Bandage mentioned that they were seeking clarification on other incidents that had happened...but they were just attempting to buy time so that Forde would be available for the Fermanagh game. Would you be happy Bandage if Forde played against Fermanagh and proved the difference between the teams? He already helped to knock out honest Monaghan when he should have been suspended. Seeking clarification, failing to turn up, quoting the Anthony Lynch precedent...I fookin despair at this bullshit. It's pure legal fookin chicanery and it has no place in our game.

I know that the CDC and the DRA need change but they got the Forde decision right. Bandage - I would understand your frustration if Forde was innocent, but he wasn't.

[bandage]

Okay then, Forde incident from the horse's mouth. Shane Sullivan is bursting out with the ball, Matty is tackling and hassling him from behind at an angle slightly to the side. As Sullivan goes to ground with ball in hand, the referee blows the whistle. Forde immediately assumes he has been penalised incorrectly for a legitimate tackle and turns his attention towards the referee and changes his focus and his eyeline from Sullivan to him. As he fixes his stare at the referee, and not the Offaly player, he steps rather than stamps on him. He says he was so irate at the referee he was actually oblivious to where Sullivan had landed as all his focus turned to the man in charge. The irony is he had blown for overcarrying on Sullivan's part and Matty pointed the resultant free. I think it's a shame that everybody is so quick to look for the worst in people. I was delighted to see players from other counties come out in support of him in the media today.

As I said there is no doubt whatsoever that he will be cleared given the way the CDC went about suspending him. Refusing to clarify matters he raised (as a player is entitled to do), not allowing him to call witnesses, then banning him without following their own protocol. I would equate it to the prosecution witholding evidence from the defence in a trial and then trying to introduce it during said trial. The legal guys will tie them up in knots and rightly so. They are an absolute embarassment but that's no use to the Wexford players drinking down in Jim McGee's pub on John Street tonight.

Gutted for them. Red Barry's interview on the radio last night when he broke down in tears brought it home for me. As did David Murphy crying his eyes out in front of us at the final whistle. Thing is we were playing well in the first half at 0-6 each. Only saw the penalty incident now on The Sunday Game as Bealo blocked our view at the game by standing in front of us. His reaction told us it was never a penalty and the footage tonight confirmed this. The missed frees also cost us but they are a good side in fairness to them - though I wouldn't think it's inaccurate to speculate that Forde's absence was probably the difference between the teams.

'Thanks for everything you've done for us this year,' I said to Bealo at the end. 'Thanks for coming lads, we'll be back next year,' he replied. Yes we will Bealo. Yes we will.

[iamthelaw]

bandage said:

'Thanks for everything you've done for us this year,' I said to Bealo at the end. 'Thanks for coming lads, we'll be back next year,' he replied. Yes we will Bealo. Yes we will.

Good dignified interview from Bealin on the Sunday Game after the match, in fairness. Difficult circs, could easily have complained about a few things but didn't. With the diving, legal machinations & general nastiness in the football so far (guess the hurling hasn't yet been competitive enough to engender those characteristics), it was nice to see a different line being taken.

[bandage]

humbug said:

Just watched the Sunday Game there and I am growing ever more thick over Fordegate. Quirke was saying that he didn't have a chance to defend himself yet he failed to turn up for three different hearings. Bandage mentioned that they were seeking clarification on other incidents that had happened...but they were just attempting to buy time so that Forde would be available for the Fermanagh game. Would you be happy Bandage if Forde played against Fermanagh and proved the difference between the teams? He already helped to knock out honest Monaghan when he should have been suspended. Seeking clarification, failing to turn up, quoting the Anthony Lynch precedent...I fookin despair at this bullshit. It's pure legal fookin chicanery and it has no place in our game.

I know that the CDC and the DRA need change but they got the Forde decision right. Bandage - I would understand your frustration if Forde was innocent, but he wasn't.

If you're thick over the witch hunt and character assassination can you imagine how pissed off people in Wexfprd are about it?

I would have had no problem whatsoever with Forde playing against Fermanagh and putting them out. If you were in Clones last weekend you would hardly call Monaghan or their supporters honest. A pack of vicious cunts both and delighted we stuck it in their faces.

Everybody has a right to defend their good name. This is not chicanery. He was advised that he had an excellent case largely due to the nature of the incident given he is not looking at the injured party at the point of contact and other precedents from throughout the summer and before. He sought clarification and to bring witnesses and was denied this basic right. That is why he did not attend (again on legal advice) and that is why he will be cleared. And I repeat that is why we should have played him last night anyway.

[therock67]

Cracking read here lads.

Interesting to see both sides point of view. I think I'll have to come down on the side of Forde. The CDC could have banned Forde in his absence before Saturday. Leaving it until Saturday was grossly unfair as it disallowed the opportunity for appeal to the DRA.

I was making the point to bandage and tommymoore on Friday evening (verbally, as we didn't bring our laptops to the pub) that soccer seems to have its house in order far more than other sports in this respect. GAA and horse racing are riddled with court threats and injuctions and all sorts of carry-on that would surely not be required if the rule book and procedures were set in stone. Having said that, I'm now thinking of Ollie Byrne with Shels who's another lad who goes looking for legal arguments all the time to undermine what happens on the pitch. Is it just something in Irish sports adminstrators that they lack honesty and integrity as iamthelaw has suggested above?

Either way I think the GAA got this wrong. Having taken all the steps to introduce the DRA to ensure there was an appeals process available to players they went out of their way to remove this possibility from this case. I wonder did Forde consider going to court for an injunction as a result.

[humbug]

bandage said:

Forde immediately assumes he has been penalised incorrectly for a legitimate tackle and turns his attention towards the referee and changes his focus and his eyeline from Sullivan to him.

This is not a defence. He is looking at him a split second before he lands on him. If I approach you and give you a puck in the jaw and I choose to look away at the moment of impact does that mean I'm innocent?

[whyohwhy]

humbug said:

bandage said:

Forde immediately assumes he has been penalised incorrectly for a legitimate tackle and turns his attention towards the referee and changes his focus and his eyeline from Sullivan to him.

This is not a defence. He is looking at him a split second before he lands on him. If I approach you and give you a puck in the jaw and I choose to look away at the moment of impact does that mean I'm innocent?

Delighted he got banned, he meant it, it was balatantly obvious and everyone else in the stadium (apart from steamer & bandage) knew it when it was inadvertantly sown twice on the big screen.

GAC, DRA and all the other acroynms in the GAA are a disgrace, the anthony lynch, matty forde, rory o'connell, tryone-dublin issues show it to be a waste of time and money. Utter amateurs the lot of them. Lunatics running the ayslum

[bandage]

whyohwhy said:

Delighted he got banned, he meant it, it was balatantly obvious and everyone else in the stadium (apart from steamer & bandage) knew it when it was inadvertantly sown twice on the big screen.

Steamer thought it was intentional although me, Bandage senior, brother Bandage, sister Bandage and brother in law Bandage didn't.

He's gone to play for Kilkenny City for 3 months now. Good luck to him.

[whyohwhy]

bandage said:

He's gone to play for Kilkenny City for 3 months now. Good luck to him.

Will he come back?

[bandage]

Yeah he'll definitely come back. This is from the Indo today. After a few weeks sticking the knife in they decide to do a piece to try tug at everyone's heartstrings. He doesn't want sympathy, he wants justice. I'm still really fooking annoyed by this.

Will GAA lose Forde for good?

Kilkenny City move leaves Wexford fans fearing worst

COULD Matty Forde's three-month ban and disillusionment with the GAA's lumbering disciplinary system mean that Gaelic football is about to lose another of its star players to soccer?

Wexford's only football All-Star confirmed yesterday that Kilkenny City soccer club have approached him, even while he is in the throes of appealing against his three-month ban from playing Gaelic games.

Club sources revealed that Forde had lunch with Kilkenny City boss Adrian Fitzpatrick yesterday to discuss the move.

Fitzpatrick saw Forde playing soccer some years ago and feels the Kilanerin star could provide the strike force that his struggling side need as they languish second last in Division One of the Eircom League.

Forde declined to comment on his plans yesterday and it appears it will all depend on the outcome of his appeal against his ban.

But if he signs up with Kilkenny, he could make his soccer debut in a home game against Monaghan on Saturday week and his presence would undoubtedly help improve the gate receipts at Buckley Park.

Forde would not be the first GAA player to switch codes while serving a GAA suspension and he has more sporting options than most, having also shown enough prowess in rugby to have oval ball teams queueing up to sign him.

Forde showed his potential as a rugby player in just one season with local Division 3 Leinster League side Gorey RFC.

And he would certainly not want for rugby advice as Gordon D'Arcy, Ireland's international centre and another of Wexford's favourite sporting sons, is a close friend.

Forde has more than enough talent to play professional soccer according to the secretary of his local soccer club Gorey Rangers.

Ability

"Matty played a few matches with us about eight years ago before the Gaelic season started and he certainly has the ability," John Barnes said.

"Another famous local Billy Byrne (All-Ireland winning hurler) was with us around the same time," he revealed. "The two lads did pre-season training with us and then played a few league games before their Gaelic training started, which was always their priority.

"Matty was only a teenager at the time but he certainly has the ability football-wise," Barnes said. "He played centre-forward, was two-footed of course and he certainly had an eye for goal. He's just a natural footballer."

Brian Murphy, brother of Ireland's rugby full-back star Geordan, said yesterday that Gorey RFC would certainly welcome Forde back with open arms should he want to return to the oval ball.

"I don't think he ever played rugby at school, but he played with us in the GAA off-season about three years ago and won a South-East League trophy," said Murphy. "He played at out-half and at centre, but he could have played anywhere in the backs really. Any club would love to have Matty."

While Forde has proved himself to be very versatile, Gaelic football has always been his number one sport and his family are particularly upset by the criticism he has endured in the past fortnight, saying the controversy over his alleged stamping on Offaly's Shane Sullivan has unfairly overshadowed his contribution and commitment to the GAA.

Car crash

That loyalty was memorably demonstrated two years ago when Forde was injured in a car crash while on his way to an inter-county match, yet he still lined out and finished the match as the top scorer.

As one of the most talented forwards of his generation, Forde has taken some heavy punishment from defenders both at inter-county and international level, infamously getting poleaxed by Australia's Chris Johnson in last year's International Rules series.

The back-door system has brought his talents to a wider public and when players were finally allowed to sign sponsorship deals, Forde was one of the first footballers the sponsors sought out. He is one of the elite group who have a personalised boot deal with adidas.

Many believe it would take a lot to turn him away from the GAA, but others within Wexford GAA fear that Forde's experiences of the past fortnight might yet do just that.

[whyohwhy]

Good at rugby too!!! fair play

[corleone]

Is this the kilkenny city footballer? Used to play Gaahh for Wexford?

[eamo]

If Forde had admitted his dirty, deliberate stamp then I would have more time for him.

If he had said something along the lines of 'Take that you cnut', like Keane said to the Norwegian

The worse thing was his attempt to sneak out of it and not to face up to it like a man, neither on the pitch when he looked away nor subsequently when he would not appear in front of the GAC.

Monaghan have satisfactory grounds for complaints (he scored six out of eight points).

However from being at my first Wexford match in Enniskillen on Saturday last (thanks briantinnion), I can safely say that Wexford are not a one man team. Unlucky to lose to Fermanagh and in young Deely they have an absolute gem.....

[therock67]

Of some relevance from Saturday's Irish Times

Campbell a victim of random justice
Keith Duggan

Sideline Cut: So, Paddy Campbell, Donegal's full back, has become the latest GAA player to feel the power of the Central Disciplinary Committee's seemingly random policy on sporting misdemeanours. The cavalier behaviour of the CDC is fast becoming the most exciting and unpredictable element of this year's championship. Rather than deal with on-field indiscretions shortly after they occur, it is as though the CDC men hop into one of those DeLorean wonder cars that Christopher Lloyd jazzed up for Michael J Fox in Back to the Future all those years ago to revisit places and incidents that the rest of the world has happily forgotten.

Rumours had been circulating for several weeks that having been made watch Campbell's ill-advised contact with Derry's Enda Muldoon - possibly to the soundtrack of Tchaikovsky's's Nutcracker Suite - the CDC were intent on "going after" the Glenties man. There is something terribly clandestine and even sinister about the idea of a faceless, all-powerful body of men singling out certain players for certain transgressions. It perpetuates the notion the axe could fall on any player at any time and that equally, you might just get away with it.

One imagines the Donegal schoolteacher trying to explain his side of the story in mellifluous Glenties tones before finally lamenting, "Jeez boys, I wasn't expectin' the Spanish Inquisition." As the Monty Python boys used to cry out in chorus, "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion".

Cleese and company would probably appreciate the GAA's arcane and slightly perverse love of committees and their absolute maze of a rulebook. Whenever things happen in the GAA, there is invariably a clause or a sub-clause available to explain it away. That Campbell was guilty was beyond question. He squeezed Muldoon where it hurt, earning an understandable retaliation from the Derry man which got him sent off. Campbell's action was caught on film, he spoke about it afterwards in contrite, regretful terms and went on to play in the Ulster final against Armagh.

He was entitled to believe the incident was behind him as he had not been reprimanded by the referee or the linesman. He was just unlucky to be caught on camera and he insists seconds earlier he had been antagonised by another Derry player, an incident that occurred beyond the BBC's camera lense. As it happened, the defender had a mixed day on Ronan Clarke in Croke Park. But supposing he had performed outstandingly, holding the full forward scoreless and playing a leading part in a Donegal victory. Armagh, you can be sure, would have taken their medicine and congratulated the men from the northwest.

But that would not have altered the fact they were defeated by someone the CDC was destined to suspend. If Campbell was to be punished, it should have been no more than three days after the Derry match. Donegal would have missed their first-choice defender in the provincial showpiece, a just censure. But at least that was not a knockout game. Had Campbell been suspended at the appropriate time, he would also have missed the upcoming qualifier against Fermanagh but would have been back for the quarter-final if Donegal prevailed against their Ulster neighbours.

Because of the ludicrous delay in sorting out what was a straightforward infraction of the rules, Armagh potentially suffered, Campbell's season has been reduced to a shambles and Donegal have to now plan without him unless they reach the All-Ireland semi-final.

As it happened, there were several off-the-ball incidents in that Ulster final which made Campbell's interference with Muldoon look like nothing more than a harmless tickle. These flagrant acts of aggression have been highlighted in print and on the midweek GAA television shows. So far, there has been no indication if the CDC will review them. It means the players involved progress through the championship in the hope the spotlight won't fall upon them. They face the potentially ruinous situation of missing the climactic stage of the championship should they suddenly be asked to appear before the committee. If not censured, it provokes feelings of resentment among players and counties who've been hauled over the coals.

The most explicit example of this is the case of Matty Forde. Whatever your interpretation of Forde's contact with an Offaly player supine and vulnerable on the turf, it is hard not to feel sorry for him. Forde has been an inspirational figure during the rise of Wexford football and there was something genuinely sad about the degree of notoriety that fell upon him in the days and weeks after the incident. It could have been avoided had the matter been dealt with swiftly and promptly.

The efforts of the Wexford County Board to portray their man as some kind of martyr backfired and the whole episode has left a sour taste, with Forde intent on clearing a reputation he believes has been sullied by the tardy, insufficient disciplinary process.

Just to rub salt in the wound, the Cork County Board demonstrated the real way to do business, moving swiftly and armed with Frank Murphy's acumen and an argument based on the absolutism of the rulebook to ensure the decision to ban Anthony Lynch was overturned.

It just heightened the general discontent with the GAA disciplinary system. And it gave credence to the complaint by Séamus Qualter of Westmeath that the GAA operates a two-tier system; while all animals are equal, some are more equal than others.

In a way, the players are incidental to what has happened in recent weeks. Waterford hurler John Mullane, who declared he would not appeal his suspension with the admirable declaration of, "if you do the crime, you do the time" has been held up as sort of model in recent weeks. But the difference between hurling and football is hurling operates on a set of well-defined rules the players tend to obey. Gaelic football is, for all its thrills and merits, borderline lawless. There's a culture on the field of getting away with what you can.

Third man tackles, off the ball hits, stray elbows, stamping, squeezing, you name it: elite Gaelic football players learn from an early age that psychological warfare is the bottom line on a football field. Players do not believe they can rely on the referee for protection and so they sort things out themselves, hoping they can get away with it. And afterwards, players seem to adhere to an omerta whereby they simply do not complain about incidents on the field.

It means when a player is singled out, there is an outcry, a feeling of victimisation. And that is understandable because for every transgression punished, more brazen acts are often blithely ignored. It will take a long time for the GAA to reverse the culture of getting away with it so prevalent in the games and the CDC's nostalgia trips to last month's games will not stop players or administrators trying to shape the law, in so far as it exists at all, as they see fit.