Cool the jets, bans aren’t so big a deal...

THE outrage which greeted Kieran McGeeney’s 12-week ban this week was somewhat misplaced, if understandable.

Set against the eight–week suspension which Davy Fitzgerald incurred for a far more serious infraction, it is easy to understand why there were such grumblings of discontent.

McGeeney is not the first manager to be hit with a 12-week stretch – Colm Collins (Clare, below) and Turlough O’Brien (Carlow) were prescribed the same bitter medicine in the recent past.

The GAA is well within its right to demand absolute respect for its match officials and if that is reflected with an exaggerated punishment for those who are found to be in breach of it then well and good.

The bottom line here is that until such time as the GAA provide some technical back-up at least, match officials are right even when they are wrong.

The reality is that the bans meted out to both Fitzgerald and McGeeney sound far worse than they really are.

Fitzgerald can go about his core business of preparing the team as will McGeeney, so what we are seeing in place are glorified sideline bans rather than the more ominous all-embracing suspensions. The latter is not only impossible to police, the truth is that it is also lacks clarity as to what a manager can and can’t do.

In that instance, the GAA might be better served by simply proceeding with match-based bans rather than embracing timebased ones which they struggle to implement.