Letting Gleeson off hook hurts GAA in long run
Players escaping punishment undermines hurling’s status
LET’S not pretend this is over. Don’t suppose that we can leave behind the events of recent days and that they will stay in the past, dry and dormant as the dinosaurs. No, this was a terrible week for the GAA. Fresh, considerable damage has been done to the integrity of its games. The authorities, it is reported, are going to repair the fissure in the rules that prevents the CCCC reviewing an incident even if the referee professes to have dealt with it, but there will be another crack in the regulations exploited soon enough.
This is because the integrity of the GAA’s laws is under attack from within, as it always has been. Counties and teams will always prioritise self-interest over the wider good: if they can get their man off, they will pull every procedural stroke possible. They will, if required, spend thousands on the best legal advice, relying on Jesuitical interpretations of the regulations to release their player for the next match.
Supporters and sponsors, let alone management and the squads involved, demand nothing less. Elite sporting environments expect the sternest standards, as we are so often told.
But let’s not cod ourselves that this is a victimless approach to the governance of hurling and football. Let’s drop the cheap charade that Austin Gleeson’s availability for the All-Ireland hurling final in a fortnight’s time is for the good of hurling.
It’s not, and only a Waterford supporter or an eejit could suppose otherwise.
At this point, the caveat is usually applied that Gleeson is a luminous talent, that he is not that type of hurler, and that the first Sunday in September should be adorned by his skills.
But none of that matters a damn – or it shouldn’t. This sends us traipsing, despairing, back to an old, irreducible point: justice must be blind. The offence should determine the outcome, not the measure of the man committing it.
Nobody disputes that Austin Gleeson or any on the other long list of players who have avoided censure to play in All-Ireland finals over the years is a fine man. A functioning disciplinary system cannot use character references as the deciding factor in the administration of fair play, though.
Despite the overwhelming popularity of Gaelic games on this island, they remain intimate communities where any two individuals are only an acquaintance or two removed from knowing one another.
In such an environment, emotion is a powerful factor; just listen to all of the people who declared how terrible it would be were Gleeson to miss the final. An RTÉ sports announcer reading a morning bulletin said it would be a ‘shame’.
Given that climate, the need for rules to be tight and resistant to special pleading is great. However, this case cannot be attributed to flawed procedures or a slip-up by committee men or Croke Park.
Blame is too neatly assigned under such an analysis. This is a problem which should be shared through all levels of the association. At every grade and standard, it is acceptable to put partisan concerns ahead of general principle.
If it is naive to suppose it should be any other way, it is just as innocent to believe that the GAA doesn’t suffer as a result.
It has been damaged by the Gleeson case, and that of Adrian Tuohy the week before. A rule introduced on sound medical grounds has now been so weakened that people are calling for its abolition.
This ignores the damage that can be caused by dragging the helmet off an opponent’s head. The most graphic instance involved Declan Fanning when his helmet was pulled off in a match against Wexford seven years ago; he needed 25 stitches to an ear injury.
The medical, scientific and welfare committee whose work facilitated the introduction of the rule received expert advice that warned a type of brain injury called contrecoup could be sustained if a player’s head was shaken inside their helmet, one obvious consequence of an opponent grabbing their faceguard. Who needs experts, though? Hurling men know best, and they are now arguing that this rule should go, or be confined to cases of aggressive interference only, as if a referee or his harassed officials could make such a call in the heat of a match.
On hurling final day, commentators will froth about the game being the heartbeat of Ireland, but its status will be compromised by the presence of two players who have avoided sanction for serious offences.
That is no cause for joy.
An RTÉ announcer said it would be a ‘shame’ for him to miss the final