Edenderry relegated, its official!!!

[Hocker]

Croke park last night upheld the Leinster councils decision to over-rule the Offaly county board on the whole relegation thing, & hence the drawn result between Doon & Shannonbridge stands.
Doon are fixed to play Edenderry this weekend, remains to be seen whether Edenderry will fulfill the fixture or not.
Any thoughts lads & lassises?

[turk]

I'd like to know their "rationale" for this.

was this the DRA Hocker?

[Lone Shark]

The harsh part of all this is that since it was the Offaly county board who appealed this in the first place, it's up to them if they want to take it further, and since appeals to the DRA don't come cheap, you'd have to suspect that this will be the end of it. That's harsh on both Edenderry and Doon, because it was in their interests to contest it further.

Anyway, one would suspect there will be no appetite in Edenderry to field now.

Best of luck to them in regrouping over the winter and next year.

[Hocker]

No I dont think it was the DRA turk.... i'm not sure as to the specifics of it all, but all i know is that the result of the match between Bridge & Doon now stands.
Assuming Doon come away with full points against Edenderry, be it Walkover or victory, this will lead to a once off playoff between Ourselves & Doon to see who will remain senior next year.
I personally couldn't give much of a shite now at this stage in the year, I think everyone is sick of training, challenge matches, time consumption etc.. Not that many lads from either club would have remained on the dry for the last few months

[True Red]

This is taken from http://www.edenderrygaa.com

Latest news


County Board Cock-Up
02 November 2006


Edenderry Club has just been made aware of the circumstances surrounding the Shannonbridge Appeal of the Offaly GAC Decision to award the Offaly Senior Football Relegation Play-off to Doon.

Offaly Games Administration Committee (GAC), who under Offaly County Board Bye-Law are the Sub-Committee who shall be responsible for all arrangements, for control of, and any matters arising from Games under the jurisdiction of the County Committee.

Therefore following a letter from the Edenderry Club requesting a full investigation of the events surrounding the final minutes of the Offaly Senior Football Relegation Play-off Shannonbridge vs. Doon and the subsequent content of the Referee's report the Offaly GAC were compelled to investigate the matter.

During the investigation the Shannonbridge player involved in the incident admitted he had re-entered the field of play and had not informed the referee as per rule.


As everyone knows the GAA rule book is a mine field and in fact there is nothing contained in the rule book to cover the eventuality of a team playing 16 players. Therefore the Offaly GAC could only find one rule which Shannonbridge broke 113 (c) (ii). This seemed very clear at the outset.

This is where things began to go wrong, the Official Guide (the Rule Book) is updated every year after Congress (April 2006). Prior to Congress of this year the Official Guide was last printed and published in January 2006. This January version is the one the Offaly GAC were working with unaware that since Congress in April, where a number of rules were amended a newer version had been printed and published. What compounds the error is that the County Board request €10 per copy of the new version only a number of weeks ago.

Following the investigation by the GAC they concluded that Shannonbridge had breeched Rule 113 (c) (ii) - (Old Rule Book) which states


RULES OF SPECIFICATION AND CONTROL - Penalties for breaches of the above Rules shall be as follows:
(c) (ii) A Substitution (including a Temporary Substitution) being made of a player whose name is not supplied to the Referee or the Sideline Official, as appropriate, and as specified in Rule.
PENALTY: Forfeiture of game or fine, depending on the circumstances.

The Offaly GAC concluded that the circumstances in this case warranted a forfeiture of the game due to the implications for Doon and Edenderry.

The then proceeded to invoke Rule 111 T.O. 2006 (old rule book)

AWARD OF GAME
A Referee cannot make an award of a game. The award rests with the Committee or Council concerned, acting on his Report.



Now everything seemed in order and seemed fair; however Shannonbridge obliviously realised the error and probably could not believe their luck. They had been handed a life line through a loop hole left open by a basic error.

A month after congress the amended rules usually come into effect and unfortunately the rule by which Shannonbridge were sanctioned was amended, it is now called Rule 114 (c) (ii) T. O 2006, which reads


RULES OF SPECIFICATION AND CONTROL - Penalties for breaches of the above Rules shall be as follows:
(c) (ii) A Substitution (including a Temporary Substitution) being made of a player whose name is not supplied to the Referee or the Sideline Official, as appropriate, and as specified in Rule.

PENALTY: On an Inquiry by Committee in charge - Forfeiture of Game, without Award to the Opposing Team, or Fine, depending on the circumstances


The new wording 'without Award to the Opposing Team', meant that Offaly GAC had no right to award the game to Doon, and therefore had mis-applied the Rules. By mis-applying the Rules they have missed their chance to sanction Shannonbridge and that means Edenderry are relegated despite Shannonbridge played with 16 players.

By not using the up-to-date rule book the GAC messed up this case, they went too far in giving the points to Doon. However if they only forfeit the game on Shannonbridge it is unknown what would have happened then as the game ended in a draw.



Offaly county Board are putting forward a motion to Congress nest year to have a rule inserted in the Official Guide to stop teams playing 16 players. This is of no consolation to Edenderry however, as we face the drop.



The County Board have fixed Edenderry to play Doon in the 3rd leg this play-off, the game is pointless to Edenderry and in protest to show our dissatisfaction with the Administration of the GAA affairs in Offaly, Edenderry will not be field a team for this game

[Lone Shark]

That is an awful state of affairs. Granted it's a GAA-wide problem rather than one specific to Offaly, but a lot of these appeals and problems come about because clubs/counties/players know that if they can escape on a technicality they are then home free.

It's probably too late to submit anything for this year - plus I'm not involved in a club in Offaly right now being across the pond - but would a rule be workable whereby if any player or club escapes sanction on a technicality, the rules can be reapplied correctly? This would mean that in cases like this the correct rules could then be applied, rather than Shannonbridge escaping through a loop hole.

*I stress that this is not an anti Shannonbridge thing. I understand that it was an inadvertent error, however the rules are clear and in this case they have not been applied*

[Hyper]

Excuse my ignorance here but what is does forfeiture of game without reward to opposing team mean? paly the game again?

[Hyper]

LS, could you go through KKG with a motion? I'm sure Mary could accomodate!!!

[Lone Shark]

Forfeiture without reward means that for the non-offending team, the result stands, the other team loses any points they may have gained.

It's actually Round Towers I'm with over here, and I'm definitely going to have a go (see the "Convention" thread) but if anyone wanted to suggest it to their own club and try through another channel, it might be no harm. I've had a go at the wording, feel free to suggest/adjust/copy.

[Hyper]

So in essence if that rule was applied then if Edenderry beat Doon then they would play Shannonbridge in a winner stays up playoff with Doon being doomed!!! seems a bit unjust to Doon

[Lone Shark]

If Edenderry fielded and beat Doon now, they'd also be doomed. In one sense Doon are the lucky party in this in that the way the fixtures were arranged meant that they got a dead rubber to finish.

If it was set up that only the first fixture was set in stone, then the losers of that match (Edenderry as it happened) played Doon we were guaranteed three live games with all teams competing. Instead it was done arseways, but sure what can you do.