Referee Fergal Horgan is set to make reference to the incident that occurred in Waterford’s All-Ireland quarter final triumph over Wexford on Sunday when he issues his match report.
De Búrca will therefore be cited for a category III infraction of the GAA rulebook, for “behaving in any way which is dangerous to an opponent, including deliberately pulling on or taking hold of a faceguard or any part of an opponent’s helmet (in hurling).”
The minimum penalty for such an offence is a one-match suspension, which was the penalty that De Búrca’s team-mate Stephen Bennett accrued for an incident earlier on in the year against Cork.
The suspension would make De Búrca ineligible for Waterford’s All-Ireland semi-final clash with Cork on 13 August.
De Búrca is a key cog in this Waterford side, playing a vital role in the tactics of Derek McGrath as a sweeper, and his loss for the clash with Cork would force the Déise into a whole rethinking of their system.
Horgan took action based on the advice given to him by his linesman,John Keenan, and he then issued the Waterford sweeper with a red card after the incident.
The incident which led to Tadhg de Búrca’s red card is an extremely uncertain and debatable one, though.
Harry Kehoe tries to stop the Waterford man from making a break up the line and de Búrca seemingly reacts by grabbing him and throwing him away.
WATCH:
Tadhg de Búrca's red card was the one big black spot on @WaterfordGAA's win today. Linesman gave the big call. #GAAclips pic.twitter.com/AlnQ8LuVJE— eir Sport (@eirSport) July 23, 2017
With the offence now set to be covered in the referees report, as reported by the Irish Times, it is extremely unlikely that an appeal would prove successful, due to the black and white nature of the ruling.
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