Jarlath Burns: ‘Comparing Apples to Oranges’ Case of Jer Brennan and Jim McGuinness

GAA president Jarlath Barnes said comparing Dublin manager Ger Brennan’s 12-week ban with the Central Competition Control Committee’s (CCCC) decision not to punish Donegal boss Jim McGuinness was “comparing apples to oranges”.

Referee Fergal Kelly Brennan was red-carded in his side’s last league game against Galway after an altercation with Tribesmen strength and conditioning coach Cian Breathnach McGinn and was forced to watch the Championship game from the stands, including Sunday’s defeat to Louth in Croke Park.

McGuinness avoided any punishment from official Sean Herson in his side’s inaugural All-Ireland Senior Football Championship win over Kerry on 23 May, despite appearing to push Kingdom midfielder Diarmuid O’Connor as tempers rose between both sets of players at the half-time hooter.

While some have questioned why the incidents led to vastly different outcomes, Burns insisted that it came down to each referee’s on-field decision and that a cancellation would be tantamount to “re-refereeing the game”.

“Referee (Kelly) Ger Brennan dealt with the incident on the spot, gave him a red card and referred to it as contact with an opponent. The rules are very clear where it’s a 12-week suspension,” Barnes told BBC Sport NI’s Mark Sidebottom.

“I think if the other incident hadn’t happened nobody would have commented on it, but the referee (Harson) ruled on (the McGuinness incident) in a slightly different way.

“He didn’t deal with it at the time and it was his choice but he did mention it in his report and the CCCC ruled that if they were going to rule on it afterwards, it would have been re-refereeing the game.”

Barnes added: “Whenever we whistle a referee and send him off, he’s in charge for those 70 minutes and it’s not our responsibility to re-referee.

“It’s very simple: one referee tackled it one way and one referee tackled it the other, so it’s none of our business after that.”