“Gordon is disputing if it even hit him” – Clare manager on water bottle fiasco

Clare manager Colm Collins said Gordan Kelly’s ban is “a joke”  ahead of his player's appeal hearing on Thursday night.

Kelly was banned for three months after Clare’s drawn National Football League clash with Tipperary, on February 11, when it was alleged that he sprayed water at an official after the game. The veteran defender will learn the fate of his appeal when the GAA’s Appeal Committee, headed by Brian Rennick, decide whether to believe Kelly’s plea of innocence or to retain his three-month ban. Colm Collins, who was also banned for an altercation with an official in the same match, was outraged at Kelly’s three-month ban saying that the allegations were “ridiculous” as there was no reason why Kelly would have had an altercation with an umpire. Speaking on The GAA Hour, Collins dismissed claims that the water had been sprayed in the umpire’s face and even backed a claim by Kelly that the water hadn’t touch the official at all.

“I can tell you for certain it didn’t hit him in the face. Gordon is even disputing that it was in his direction, if it even hit him,” he said.

Whether the water hit the umpire in the face or otherwise, Collins was sure that the incident was accidental and was blown way out of proportion.

“Gordon swears that he just cleaned out the bottle,” he said. “To put it into context, in that game there was no issue with any of the four umpires. There was no controversial decision involving any of the umpires, nothing. One incident in the game involved the linesman and the referee that was it.”

Kelly who made his debut for Clare in 2006, has a near perfect disciplinary record and an incident like this does seem unlikely. If the three-month ban is upkept, the Miltown club man will all but miss the Clare senior football league with his club. Collins was disgusted with the three-month punishment which he says is far too harsh even if Kelly had intentionally sprayed the umpire.

“There will be six games of the Clare senior league over before he is eligible to play again so he’ll only play one game,” he complained. “Even if it did hit him, to give a guy, who has a brilliant disciplinary record over the last 14 or 15 years three months, which prevents him from playing club football, I just think is absolutely mad. I just think its mad.”

Collins said that he understands the importance of officials’ safety but that in a case like this where there was no potential for injury the ruling can’t be as serious as where there is physical contact. He said that he even found Diarmuid Connoly’s ban last year harsh and that this is on another level.

“I would be also protecting officials,” he said. “If there was any physical interference of any sort, fair enough, but this is an absolute joke. Joke!” “At least Diarmuid got to put his hand on your man! He got some mileage out of it. Ah lads, at least he got something for his trouble, this is ridiculous.”

Collins criticised how rules are implemented by the GAA. While he admitted that they are pivotal to the success of the association, he said that they need to be implemented more consistently and with more common sense.

“I don’t think that anything is going to change, I think it’s one area in our games that instead of improving is getting worse,” he said. “The black card rule was the most brilliant rule that ever came in until the referees got their hands on it. I just think that we’re going backwards in relation to these things.” “I think that the whole thing has just gone too far.”

Listen to the full interview and much more from The GAA Hour Football Show right here. This article was written by Mícheál Ó Scannáil.