Davy Fitzgerald was given an eight-week touchline ban following his pitch invasion against Tipperary, and along with it came disapproving words ringing out across the GAA landscape. The strongest came from Daithi Regan on Newstalk, who said that Fitzgerald's incursion was "imbecilic":
It's not nice to see, and I hated the attitude afterward. You've done so well to get down there, you've raised the profile in Wexford, you've got a bunch of players of outstanding professionalism and really believing in what you are telling them what to do, and in what they are trying to do to represent Wexford. You then take so much away from that with this carry-on, imbecilic, childish carry-on that was self-indulgent. And to try and brush it under the carpet afterwards by saying 'I'm getting my players going'. No you're not.
Not everybody has joined the chorus of condemnation, however, with Cyril Farrell writing in today's Irish Independent that, while Fitzgerald broke a rule and has been rightly disciplined, but that the opinion swirling around in the aftermath is difficult to take. Under the headline "Attacks on Davy the height of hypocrisy", Farrell vented his displeasure, without referring to anyone by name:
For some reason, there has been endless pontificating, with people who should know better preaching fire and brimstone as if they never broke a rule themselves. It sounds a lot like hypocrisy to me.
Farrell then relayed an anecdote from his own career, in which he was given an eight-week ban for unfairly criticising a referee. Not that he took it too seriously. We pick it up as he leaves the hearing at Croke Park:
So I was promptly handed a two-month ban, said 'good-night'to the committee, drove home and got on with managing Galway in full view of everyone. Our next game was in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, where, to their great credit, the Cork County board provided me with a chair to sit on the sideline. Very comfortable it was too.
Business as usual and I continued from there on, managing away as if nothing had happened.
You can read his full column in today's Indo.
