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Figure caption,'It's like comparing apples and oranges' - Burns
ByDavid MohanBBC Sport NI journalist- Published4 minutes ago
GAA President Jarlath Burns says comparing Dublin manager Ger Brennan's 12-week suspension to the Central Competitions Control Committee [CCCC]'s decision not to punish Donegal boss Jim McGuinness is like "comparing apples to oranges".
Brennan was shown a red card by referee Fergal Kelly in his side's final league game against Galway after an altercation with Tribesmen's strength and conditioning coach Cian Breathnach McGinn and has been forced to watch championship games from the stands, including Sunday's defeat by Louth in Croke Park.
McGuinness avoided any punishment from official Sean Hurson in his side's opening All-Ireland Senior Football Championship victory over Kerry on 23 May despite appearing to shove Kingdom midfielder Diarmuid O'Connor as tempers boiled over between both sets of players at the half-time hooter.
While some have questioned why the incidents have resulted in vastly different outcomes, Burns insists it has come down to each referee's on-field decision and to overrule would be tantamount to "re-refereeing the game".
"The referee [Kelly] dealt with the Ger Brennan incident on the spot, gave him a red card and cited it as contact with an opponent. The rules are very clear where that is a 12-week suspension," Burns told BBC Sport NI's Mark Sidebottom.
"I think nobody would have passed any remarks on that if the other incident hadn't have happened, but the referee [Hurson] adjudicated on that [McGuinness incident] in a slightly different way.
"He didn't deal with it at the time and that was his choice but he did refer to it in his report and the CCCC adjudicated that if they were going to make a judgement on it thereafter, it would have been re-refereeing the game."
Burns added: "Whenever we give a whistle to a referee and sent him out, he is in charge of those 70 minutes and it's not incumbent on us to re-referee it.
"It's very simple: a referee dealt with it in one way and one referee adjudicated another, so after that it's really none of our business."
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Dublin interim boss Dean Rock turned down media requests following their defeat by Louth.
While former player Paul Flynn, speaking on The Sunday Game, opined that was "not directly linked" to McGuinness escaping a similar punishment to Brennan, the six-time All-Ireland winner feels there is "probably a sense in Dublin that there's a bit of injustice in the way that Ger has been treated".
However, Burns doesn't "think that's the case at all" when it comes to the wider GAA public and reiterated his stance that the CCCC were happy to accept Hurson's view of events in Killarney when dealing with the McGuinness incident.
"It's very unfortunate Ger has a 12-week suspension but that is in the rule book," he continued.
"If those two events had happened in isolation, I don't think it would have been as much of a furore.
"A member of the public may see two similar events of gravity happening and two different things [outcomes], but it really comes down to how a referee deals with it on the spot: one gives a red card and that incurs a straightforward 12-week suspension, but the other decides not to.
"He could see it [incident], the fourth official could see it, so after that, it's none of my business."
