Tom Sullivan given 2 Month Ban

[ruralgaa]

KERRY’S Tom O’Sullivan has been handed a two months ban arising from an incident in the Allianz NFL game against Tyrone last week.


The Rathmore man is ruled out of any of the team’s challenge games but will be free to play in the Munster SFC semi-final on June 3rd against the winners of the Clare/Waterford first-round game.

The suspension dates from his last game — against Dublin last Sunday — and ends at midnight on Saturday June 2nd. Because of a change in the disciplinary system made a few years, it only relates to inter-county activity.





He will be free to play with his club, which he captains this year.

The particular incident for which he received the suspension — from the Competitions Control Committee (CCC) — happened midway through the second half of the Tyrone game, which was played under lights in Austin Stack Park. It was based on video evidence — being missed by the referee but picked up on television.

O’Sullivan initially considered making a request for a personal hearing and this enabled him to play in last week-end’s vital game.

However, according to a County Board spokesman, this is now unlikely.

[kerrygold]

i assume the video lads can prove conclusively without reasonable doubt that tom wasnt just trying to find his footing to get back into play,just a thought.

[seamus]

That is the way it looked to me.
Maybe, i am biased but conor gormley kneed quill straight into the head when he was on the ground in the second half.
This might not be a bad thing as it will stoke the fires even more if we meet tyrone later.

i presume kerry will play a lot of in-house challenges which tom will play in. He will only miss inter county challenges where it will be no harm to try out other options at 3.

[jo90]

Tom O'Sullivan has been lucky with his suspensions at intercounty level. His suspensions in 2002 and 2007 have both resulted in no competitive games being missed.

[kerry07]

I was at the Game and I am certain that Tom has been totally wronged on this occasion. He was jumped and beyond a shadow of a doubt was acting instinctively and defensively on the occasion. You see the commentators on Setanta forgot to tell us that Tom was dragged to the ground by the Tyrone Player whom I wont name. Are Setanta or RTE going to set the diciplinary agenda now ? Their bias against Kerry players is palpable. I think that some codiseration should be given to appealing this in order to ensure that a precident is not set. The fact that the ban is of no consequence to Tom or Kerry is not a matter to be taken into account at all in my opinion. The issue is that a selective showing of an occurance accompanied by repeated biased comment can lead to injustice to players. Was any other player sanctioned from this game ? Was the Tyrone player concerned sanctioned ? What is coming out of the Club Final games ? I could go on . Think the co board should look at this again. an appeal on principle of fairness should be instituted. What do ye think ? To me Tom is a very Fair player Tough no bull.... taken but fair.

[owenabue]

kerry07 said:

I was at the Game and I am certain that Tom has been totally wronged on this occasion. He was jumped and beyond a shadow of a doubt was acting instinctively and defensively on the occasion. You see the commentators on Setanta forgot to tell us that Tom was dragged to the ground by the Tyrone Player whom I wont name. Are Setanta or RTE going to set the diciplinary agenda now ? Their bias against Kerry players is palpable. I think that some codiseration should be given to appealing this in order to ensure that a precident is not set. The fact that the ban is of no consequence to Tom or Kerry is not a matter to be taken into account at all in my opinion. The issue is that a selective showing of an occurance accompanied by repeated biased comment can lead to injustice to players. Was any other player sanctioned from this game ? Was the Tyrone player concerned sanctioned ? What is coming out of the Club Final games ? I could go on . Think the co board should look at this again. an appeal on principle of fairness should be instituted. What do ye think ? To me Tom is a very Fair player Tough no bull.... taken but fair.

How far were you from the incident?

[pony]

i totally agree with kerry07.

i would love to know how much of the incident was shown.

no doubting tom did lash out but from where i was i could see he was clearly dragged to the ground from behind when he made a run forward to recieve a pass.

this is and was that night typical of tyrones game.

[owenabue]

But what difference will it make? He'll be back for the Championship.

[pony]

suppose so but the more games he gets at full back the better.

[joan]

Again lads the issue of discipline has to be addressed. It can do on. How many of the Kerry lads are booked and have to behave or they also facing suspensions. I did not see the matter with Tom and I can only assume that it was in self defense. But when the Kerry lads are being targeted its time to hold the heads. Need's to be dealt with. Stand them up but don't play into the game and tactics that teams are resorting to theses days. I cant ever remember a time when we had so many players with warning and under the new rules it could cost us dearly

[kerry07]

I saw the incident in total from start to finish and clearly owenabue. Are you suggesting that something different took place ? Setanta ran the footage three times once in total and twice selectively focusing on Tom's reaction. His actions were reactive defensive and innocent not meriting a card even. The Tyrone player deserved to be booked at least. Further I can detect no change in dicipline on or off the pitch by players. I can detect a biased approach from the media and some refree's. YES WE NEED TO ADAPT TO THIS CIRCUMSTANCE BUT CRITICISING PLAYERS IS NOT THE WAY FOR OUR SUPPORTERS TO GO. Pony is spot on typical Tyrone. Similar Tactic used by Peter Puke on Colm in the 06 AIF. I notice Micky Harte is supportive of Mugsy in the circumstances of the Tackle that got him the Straight Red Too. Kerry are here to win owenabus and not just simply entertain the rest of the country..

[kerry07]

I saw the incident in total from start to finish and clearly owenabue. Are you suggesting that something different took place ? Setanta ran the footage three times once in total and twice selectively focusing on Tom's reaction. His actions were reactive defensive and innocent not meriting a card even. The Tyrone player deserved to be booked at least. Further I can detect no change in dicipline on or off the pitch by players. I can detect a biased approach from the media and some refree's. YES WE NEED TO ADAPT TO THIS CIRCUMSTANCE BUT CRITICISING PLAYERS IS NOT THE WAY FOR OUR SUPPORTERS TO GO. Pony is spot on typical Tyrone. Similar Tactic used by Peter Puke on Colm in the 06 AIF. I notice Micky Harte is supportive of Mugsy in the circumstances of the Tackle that got him the Straight Red Too. Kerry are here to win owenabus and not just simply entertain the rest of the country..

[owenabue]

Kerry07, I didn't see any of it. I was asking a simple question. To think along the lines that everyone is out to get the Kerry players, is a bit naive. Kerry play a tough game and in doing so, sometimes they will get cards. Ye have said about them just fighting back etc, that still doesn't mean that they don't deserve to get cards. Also to say the supporters shouldn't critical of them... well to that all I can say, is supporters have paid good money to watch them and they are out representing the county, so therefore should not act like a tug on the pitch.

[austinstacksabu]

So, I didn't see any footage from the game.....and to be honest, the way things read from the posts above - we're all jumping to defend the Kerry player and blame Tyrone as usual.....

Maybe Tom was guilty. We're becoming very small minded towards the outside world.......

[joxer]

Maybe we are ASA, but on this occasion I think Kerry07 has hit the nail on the head in everything hes said about this incident. I couldn't agree with him more.