‘ Throw them out’
Dromid manager wants Tyrone side banned
THE Dromid Pearses manager has called on the GAA to throw Tyrone’s Derrytresk out of the All-ireland junior club championship.
Speaking to The Kerryman this week, Michael Anthony O’connell was still enraged by the scenes which marred Sunday’s All-ireland semifinal showdown at O’moore Park in Portlaoise.
“I won’t be happy with a fine. I’ll never go into a football pitch again if they’re not thrown out. They can present the cup to the Galway champions. I would have no problem with that,” he fumed.
He claimed three of his players were pulled by their testicles by opposing players before the throw-in; that star player Denis ‘Shine’ O’sullivan suffered a broken cheekbone and stud marks on his back after he was stamped on, and that midfielder Thomas Curran did not know where he was at half-time deu to concussion.
Meanwhile, columnist with The Kerryman Weeshie Fogarty said that it appeared from where he was in the stands that players from Dromid Pearses, especially Declan O’sullivan, were “singled out for intimidation”.
Dromid manager Michael Anthony O’connell also claimed that Derrytresk had a plan to upset his team and that a serious incident — which saw some of the substitutes and supporters from the Tyrone side hurdle pitchside hoarding before getting involved in a melee — seemed almost premeditated.
“It’s an old tactic to break the play when a team is going well, but the way that they did it, I’ll never forget it,” he remarked. “I’ll say it out straight. Do you know what they (Derrytresk) did to three of our players when they stuck out their hands at the start of the game? They grabbed them by their testicles and pulled them. Can you imagine doing that at a football match?” O’connell asked.
“They earmarked two men who were playing well. It was all over then, we were chasing flies after that. Denis ‘Shine’ (O’sullivan) has a broken cheekbone. You should see the stud marks on his back where they stood on top of him.
“If I had known before half-time that Thomas Curran was concussed I would have taken my players off the field.
“At half-time he didn’t know what he was doing. He was in the dressingroom looking for milk out of the fridge, he thought he was at home,” revealed the Dromid Pearses manager.
“My wife and two kids were in the stand and some of the Derrytresk fans, when the melee broke out, jumped up and ran out on to the pitch.
“It was like it was premeditated. I’ll say one thing, if we were winning with three or four minutes to go, that game would not have finished and I believe that,” O’connell stated.