CORK ARE CONSIDERING their options after the Central Hearings Committee (CHC) stripped them of home advantage for their National Football League match against Laois on 10 March.
The Rebels were hit with the punishment on Saturday after they chose not to accept a €5,000 fine from the Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) for the team’s “disruptive conduct” during the league opener against Armagh.
Cork have three days from the notification of the decision to refer their case to the GAA’s Appeals Committee if they so wish. As of this morning, county officials had not yet met to decide on their next move.
Armagh also lodged an appeal against a €5,000 fine for their part in the melee, but later decided to accept the CCCC’s penalty rather than risk a harsher sanction from the CHC.
At their own hearings on Saturday, Cork’s Michael Shields and Pearse O’Neill had their respective two- and one-game bans upheld by the CHC. Armagh’s Ciaran McKeever was also unsuccessful in his bid to have a one-game ban overturned.
But his team-mate Malachy Mackin was cleared of “behaving in any way which is dangerous to an opponent” and will not miss any games.
Fintan Moriarty, who was sent off for a second yellow card in Armagh’s win against Kerry, also had his suspension thrown out by the CHC. The committee found that referee Maurice Condon was wrong to award Moriarty the first of his two cautions.
