#TheToughest Issue: Should Diarmuid Connolly be suspended for the replay against Mayo?

Diarmuid Connolly is set to miss the All-Ireland semi-final replay against Mayo following his red card on Sunday.

Given everything that went on in that game and in light of recent disciplinary cases, should the suspension stand? Conor Heneghan of JOE.ie says: YES So let’s get this one straight. Following advice from his linesman, Joe McQuillan issued Diarmuid Connolly with a straight red card for striking Lee Keegan with the fist during the closing stages of Sunday’s fractious and at times nasty All-Ireland semi-final clash with Mayo. Footage that subsequently emerged clearly shows Connolly striking Keegan and having reviewed the incident, the CCCC deemed it worthy of a one-match ban. Apologies for going all Rafa Benitez, but all of the above are ‘facts’. Connolly struck Keegan. The linesman saw it and we’ve all seen it since. And yet here we are asking if Connolly should still be let off the hook. Of course he shouldn’t. It is a damning indictment of the GAA’s current disciplinary process that while Connolly is guilty, his defence is based purely on similar incidents being overturned in the recent past. Considering that Mayo were the opposition on Sunday and are again this weekend, Kevin Keane is the most glaring example, having somehow avoided censure for clearly striking Michael Murphy in the All-Ireland quarter-final against Donegal. The specific details involved in that particular incident are so comical that the only surprise is that it wasn’t Inspector Clouseau leading the case. The whole Tiernan McCann saga was farcical, while both Connolly and Keegan have benefitted from the GAA’s unique brand of leniency in the recent past, in the 2011 and 2014 All-Ireland semi-finals respectively. Connolly can also probably feel aggrieved that he is the one player being punished despite a litany of controversial incidents taking place during the game. Johnny Cooper, Philly McMahon and Cillian O’Connor are among those who can count themselves lucky they escaped without charge from Sunday’s game, although there is a slight difference between incidents involving those players and the one involving Connolly. Retrospective action would have been required against O’Connor and McMahon, while Johnny Cooper earned only a yellow card for raking his studs down Diarmuid O’Connor’s leg after the ball had gone. I’m not saying that any of those specific incidents were less grievous that what Connolly did, merely pointing out that he was the only one to receive a red card and therefore more likely to receive straightforward punishment. Does Connolly deserve sympathy? Yes. As one of the best (if not the best) footballers in Ireland, he’s on the receiving end of pre-meditated ‘treatment’ in every game and in an environment as heated as Croke Park on Sunday, it’s hard not to snap. Lee Keegan was clearly to blame for instigating the brawl in which Connolly threw the punches and it’s not the first time he’s been guilty of such behaviour. Keegan, like plenty of inter-county players these days, is something of an expert in sh*t-stirring and getting a rise out his opposite number. But despite video footage supposedly implicating the Mayo defender emerging since Sunday, Lee Keegan didn’t throw a punch. Diarmuid Connolly did, he was caught doing it and he’s been punished for it. And regardless of what’s gone on in the past, the punishment should stick. You want to see the best players playing in the biggest games and even as a Mayo man, I’d prefer if Connolly was playing, lest his absence could be used as an excuse if Dublin do lose the replay. But rules are rules, they’re in place for a reason and Connolly broke one on Sunday. If the GAA and its various disciplinary bodies have any balls, they’ll ensure he’s punished for it. Conán Doherty says: NO Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlPbGHVA8FU The defence rests. Precedent. It's the biggest problem in the GAA and it's the reason why players as guilty as sin are getting away with whatever the hell they like. Diarmuid Connolly punched Lee Keegan. You'd think he should be banned. Of course you would. Conor Gormley punched Dessie Mone in the face. Kevin Keane punched Michael Murphy in the face. Lee Keegan himself tried to kick Johnny Buckley last year. They all eventually got away with it. Diarmuid Connolly was sent off in the 2011 semi with Donegal - he got it overturned too of course because of a cock-up in the referee's report. Nothing of the incident. Just an admin error. Red cards in club games might as well mean squat. The sad, pathetic reality of it all is that we're enabling this to happen. The fact that any of these teams even have the audacity to appeal some of these incidents should result in an extra game automatically added on to the suspension. Just for their cheek. And for their time-wasting. But it's hardly time-wasting when Mayo's Kevin Keane gets off for a punch in the face because there wasn't sufficient evidence to support the fact that he punched a man in the face. Aside from the umpire, the referee's report and, oh, the TV footage and subsequent replays. So how can the GAA uphold a ban for Connolly when they couldn't see through something as clear cut as Keane's? This was the same problem that faced them after Tiernan McCann's dive and, ironically, the same people pleading for McCann's reprieve then because of precedence are now the same ones willing to overlook precedence. Had the GAA been stronger with McCann and said, 'No more,' I'd be fully behind the decision to ban Connolly. Had they decided to draw a line right there and then and made a bold statement that there'd be no more crap getting by them, then hats off. And a new precedent would've been set. A proper one. Consistency. But they didn't. They blew it. And now Connolly is in the same position as McCann. Guilty, sure. But singled out. It's ridiculous to think that someone being punished for punching is almost being victimised but it's the nature of the sad rod that the GAA has made for its own back - and the one that the defenders of McCann helped make, too. We didn't want to make an example of a player mid-season. So why do it now? And where do you stop? Do you go back and ban Cillian O'Connor for swinging back and catching O'Carroll? Does Lee Keegan's involvement in dragging an attacker to the ground by the neck go unmentioned? In a game where so much sh*t went on from both sides, it would nearly be better to just wipe the slate clean and let them at it again. It seems that it's the only way to get any sort of closure in what is becoming a clinker of a tie. If Mayo win and Connolly isn't there, Dublin fans won't let it lie. And, as a neutral, I would rather one man wasn't scapegoated for 70 minutes of ill-temper and bad blood. And I'd certainly rather watch a replay of two fine sides playing at their maximum with everything they have at their disposal. None of them weakened. No excuses.

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