Offaly SFC “B” quarter-finals going ahead as Gracefield lose DRA request for postponement

THE Tullamore Court Hotel Senior “B” Football Championship quarter-finals are going ahead on Saturday after a Gracefield bid to get them postponed failed late on Friday evening.

Gracefield had contested the placings and qualifying orders in their group in the Championship after a change in rule for the qualifying criteria this year. That change had been made at national level but Gracefield had argued that the Offaly GAA championship regulations were not properly changed to bring them in line with it.

After losing an initial appeal to Leinster Council earlier this week, Gracefield took it further by requesting a hearing from the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA). An interim hearing of the DRA took place on Friday evening by zoom as Gracefield sought a postponement of Saturday's quarter-finals pending a full hearing.

Gracefield meet Ballycumber and Walsh Island take on Ballycommon in the two quarter-finals in O'Connor Park with group winners, Clonbullogue and Cappincuf awaiting the winners in the semi-finals.

Gracefield had sought the interim hearing for postponement as it would not be possible for a full hearing to take place in the short time span before Saturday.

The clubs remaining in the champuionship had been joined to the proceedings by the County Board as interested parties and they were all notified on Friday night that Gracefield's bid had failed.

In their notification to the County Board, the DRA stated that the games could go ahead but a full hearing on Gracefield's appeal would be heard later.

The DRA's ruling said that the adjudicator “is not satisfied that the Claimant has met the necessary threshold for interim relief and as such same is refused. “

They hope to hold a full hearing next week but in the meantime Gracefield must play their quarter-final on Saturday.

Former Offaly hurling star, Rory Hanniffy is the secretary of the DRA. A barrister, the Birr man did not adjudicate on this hearing for obvious reasons.

The County Board defended their structures. While Gracefield and some individuals in clubs were surprised when they learnt of the group placings after the final round of games, the change and its implications had been highlighted to them by the County Board a week before them.

Gracefield were dismayed to discover last week that they had ended up in third place instead of first place in group 2, even though they had lost their last game to Ballycommon, 2-16 to 1-12.

With Clonbullogue beating struggling Tubber the same night by 1-12 to 2-6, it left Gracefield, Clonbullogue and Ballycommon all tied on four points and through out of the group. Scoring difference was used to determine group placings with the top team into the semi-finals and the next two into two quarter-finals.

Gracefield left their match believing that they were top on scoring difference, as did Clonbullogue and Ballycommon and the Offaly GAA County Board actually posted that on their Twitter account. However, within minutes, that post was taken down as it emerged that the rules for applying scoring difference had changed this year at Congress.

In previous years, scoring difference applied if more than two teams finished level on the same points for a qualification spot – the head to head result between the teams applies when just two finish level on the same points.

In other years, Gracefield would have been top as they had a superior scoring difference from their three group games. This year, however, the scoring difference only applies in the results of the three teams tied and their scoreline against the eliminated team or teams, Tubber in this case, don't count.

It meant that scoring difference only applied to the results of the games between Clonbullogue, Gracefield and Ballycommon. These results put Clonbullogue on +4 points, Ballycommon 0 points and Gracefield -4 points.

The change had huge implications for Gracefield. Not only did it deny them a semi-final place but it also put them down into third place and facing a more difficult looking quarter-final against Ballycumber. Ballycommon face Walsh Island in the other quarter-final – they are fixed in an O'Connor Park double bill this Saturday in Tullamore.

Gracefield had turned a big corner this year after struggling last year to emerge as real championship contenders and a big concern for them is the availability of former county player, Ruari Allen. A powerful, physical, athletic player, Allen has spent most of the time in Australia in recent years. He played in Gracefield's opening group wins over Tubber and Clonbullogue and was instrumental in them while it was significant that their worse performance was in his absence against Ballycommon.

It is understood that the plan was to have Allen home for the semi-final, and final, if they reach there, but Gracefield hadn't banked on a quarter-final; - he would just have to stay home for two weeks for a semi-final to a final but it will take a month from the quarter-final through to final and that would be a long time.