The GAA’s Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) will convene this morning with two major items on its agenda: the draw for the All-Ireland football qualifiers and Diarmuid Connolly’s latest disciplinary transgression.
The latter, with respect to all 16 teams in the draw, will have a far greater impact on the eventual outcome of this year’s championship than the former. Connolly is that important to Dublin’s hopes of claiming their third All- Ireland title in a row, though his short fuse has once again placed he and Dublin in an awkward situation.
It is just a few weeks ago that Connolly spoke of being “conscious” that he’d get an automatic one-match ban if he received another black card, his third of the season. Now he must be fearing that his entire championship campaign could be wiped out after Saturday’s moment of madness in Portlaoise.
The CCCC will today consider if by placing his hand on the chest of Ciaran Branagan, a linesman, during Dublin’s 12-point Leinster championship win over Carlow, causing the Down official to take two steps backwards, Connolly was guilty of minor physical interference. That carries a minimum 12-week suspension and, if applied from the date of Saturday’s game, would keep him out until the All-Ireland semi-finals.
Walking back into the Dublin team at that stage, even allowing for Connolly’s unique ability, wouldn’t be guaranteed.
Advertisement
There is also the question of Jim Gavin’s patience as manager and whether that has been exhausted after yet another hook, line and sinker moment from Connolly who lost his cool when surrounded by Carlow players after a sideline ball went against him.
Darragh Ó Sé was correct two summers ago when he claimed in his Irish Times column that Connolly is likely to react to provocation or, as he termed it, to “pulling his tail”. As if to endorse that point, Connolly dragged Lee Keegan to the ground a few months later in the drawn All-Ireland semi- final with Mayo after provocation in the build-up.
Dublin, as they are probably doing right now, got lawyered up at the time and somehow cleared Connolly for the replay after a last-ditch appeal to the Disputes Resolution Authority.
That saga seemed to take it out of Connolly who was a peripheral figure in the replay with Mayo that year before being taken off. You might have suspected he would have learnt from the episode yet 2016 brought more cards for Connolly and of all colours; red, yellow and black.
His yellow card in the Leinster final against Westmeath for hauling James Dolan to the ground, after the Westmeath defender had tapped him lightly on the head, was particularly informative, demonstrating that despite being on the way to his fourth All-Ireland medal, Connolly could still be got to.
Advertisement
Tom Cribbin, the Westmeath manager, admitted after the game that everyone knows Connolly “can get a bit excited at times and probably we were looking for him to do so”.
The admission was along the same lines as Keegan’s a few months after the incident in 2015 when the Westport man refused to apologise for engaging in “black arts” and winding Connolly up to the point where he snapped.
There is a strong case to be made that Connolly was unlucky to be black carded against Monaghan in this year’s league but he deserved the same sanction against Kerry in the final.
With the threat of a one-match ban for three black cards hanging over him, there was some speculation that he might have got the suspension out of the way early in the summer by deliberately picking up a third black card last weekend.
He almost got one too, for a tangle with Sean Murphy, though referee Sean Hurson deemed it a yellow-card offence. Given the present mess, and the prospect of a 12-week suspension that now exists, how the CCCC would have chosen to attach a one-match ban to that is anyone’s guess.
Advertisement
It’s a situation that a player of Connolly’s vast experience shouldn’t be in and one that has frustrated Paul Caffrey, the man who handed him his Championship debut ten years ago.
“He’s 30 years of age now,” Caffrey noted in his Irish Mirror column. “Let’s put it in context — Dublin are going to win this match one way or the other by ten-plus points and he’s arguing the toss over a line ball midway through the second half.
“He should’ve been sent off for putting his hand on the linesman. It’s crazy, a total lack of discipline.”
Dublin have come out batting for Connolly in the past and will almost certainly do so again if he is hit with a proposed suspension by the CCCC. Aside from their successful trip to the DRA in 2015, Dublin also managed to have the straight red card shown to Connolly for striking during the 2011 All-Ireland semi-final win over Donegal overturned.
Gavin prides himself on his team’s good discipline though and how much more of Connolly’s petulance he and the management can take remains to be seen.
Advertisement
A penny for the thoughts of Connolly’s colleagues right now too. “I’d feel very strongly that he’s let his team-mates down,” Caffrey said.
Others, privately, will view it as an unexpected but welcome opportunity to break into one of the greatest forward lines the game has known.
Mark Schutte, Conor McHugh, Paddy Andrews and Bernard Brogan all failed to start against Carlow last weekend so will hope to capitalise on any opening that materialises.
There is a possibility too that the entire saga could be used to pull the group together and imbue them with a siege mentality as they seek to become the first team since Kerry in 1986 to win three All-Irelands in a row.
It’s possible that many of players will simply feel that Connolly has let himself and the group down, again, even if the defence of provocation is what’s trotted out publicly.