TURLOUGHMORE HAVE DECIDED to lodge a further appeal against their expulsion from the Galway SHC and the matter will now appear in front of the Connacht Council’s Hearing Committee.
The club had until today to appeal the decision of the interim County’s Competitions Control Committee who last Tuesday upheld their expulsion from the Galway hurling championship.
Having been deemed to have fielded an ineligible player during their group match win over Beagh, Turloughmore were effectively thrown out of this year’s championship.
An officer for the Galway county board confirmed this afternoon to TheScore.ie that following their three-day appeal option the club “to my understanding have now appealed the decision of the independent CCC to Connacht.”
In playing former All-Ireland winning minor hurler Mathew Keating in that match, despite having already lined out in the New York championship during the summer, the club breached transfer rules for players who spend the summer playing in the US.
Before the Galway CCC initially expelled Turloughmore from the competition, they had drawn their quarter-final clash with Adrahan. But the replay never took place as the ineligibility came to light and, now neither has the re-fixtured clash between reinstated Beagh and Adrahan.
Only for the appeal Beagh were due to play their quarter final fixture several weekends ago, but with today’s revelations the conclusion of this year’s championship is now in threat of slipping into 2015.
Now the three teams awaiting the outcome of the appeal, Portumna who are already in the final, and Adrahan and Gort who wait in the quarter final and semi final respectively, are left with little idea of when their next fixture will be.
And if this next appeal fails, the issue may again be presented before the Disputes Resolution Authority, who had already sent it back to Galway and to the reconstituted Galway CCC having deemed their original judgement too severe.
The appeal so far has been based upon “the principles of natural and constitutional justice”.
Meanwhile Galway GAA could confirm that there has been no such repeat of the debacle in the county’s football competition, following reports last week over the eligibilty of Killererin’s former county star Colin Forde.
The defender returned from London, with his transfer completed in mid-October, to help guide his team through their relegation battle with Menlough.
But one Galway GAA official told TheScore.ie that there was ‘no objection, no investigation and no hearing,’ with the relegation fixtures being considered within the county as ’an entirely different competition’ from the club championship.
