The GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee is to meet today over an incident involving Tyrone’s Tiernan McCann from their Ulster Senior Football Championship semi-final loss to Donegal on Saturday.
In the 43rd minute at Kingspan Breffni Park there was a scuffle with Donegal’ Stephen McMenamin on the ground and two Tyrone players.
Television replays show McCann’s fingers make contact with McMenamin’s mouth in an apparent fish-hook. He then appears to stamp on his head.
No action was taken at the time by referee David Gough.
McCann’s actions have been widely condemned by players and pundits.
He could escape though with just a one-match ban.
The gesture involving McMenamin’s mouth is likely to be considered as a Category III offence “to behave in any way which is dangerous to an opponent.”
To stamp on an opponent then is a Category IV infraction according to the GAA’s official rule guide.
If no action is taken during the game these offences carry a minimum “One Match Suspension in the same code and at the same level, applicable to the next game in the same competition, even if that game occurs in the following year's competition.”
Donegal players and management brushed the incident aside at full-time, claiming they didn’t see it with McMenamin himself refusing to comment on it.
Former Donegal player and current selector Karl Lacey has claimed the defender temporarily lost his sight.
“He was sore when it happened. There was a possibility he might have been taken off, the sight was gone for a wee bit.
“But he's a tough boy, it would take a wee bit more than that to pull him off in an Ulster Championship game.”
He added: “I think he was a wee bit blurry [in his vision], that was the feedback we were getting. So we didn't know whether to get somebody on [or not]. But he was alright to continue.”
In 2015 McCann had a proposed eight-week ban for diving lifted by the Central Hearings Committee.
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