Club Hurling

[redsetanta]

A very honest, heart on the sleeve interview. Ross King is 10 times the man that Dooley will ever be. Best of luck in your recovery Ross.

[Keyser Söze]

A couple of points having followed this;

Stapleton is no angel (and id also question his motives- R/E diehard or an opportunity to help bury O' Brien?). He should know better.

The ban imposed by CB was going to be overturned by a higher body if Camross decided to appeal. Should CB have stuck to their guns & gone ahead & lost the appeal? yes.
BUT was the problem a "technicality" that would have emerged at the next appeal?
Did the CB make an error in what the "proposed ban" was for?
I believe the CB proposed a 2 game ban based on the fact that "the referee didn't deal with an incident on the day". That couldn't possibly stand up to appeal (referee issued a yellow card).

Camross' complaining of trial by media etc is highly ironic- they have been very fond of sob stories in the papers in the not too distant past.
I can't see Dooley being the difference between winning & losing the first round of the Leinster Club SHC. He didn't feature in second half of semi or final.
Camross could have killed the momentum here by accepting the ban. Staggering arrogance, and they are getting what they deserve as a result.

[TheGiantSquid]

Anyone else hear the stories coming out from Camrose that D. Dooley was asked not to hurl in the Leinster by management in the wake of the controversy. Seemingly this has led to a players revolt in a "if he doesn't play we won't either" standoff... Hardly ideal preparation for a Leinster run.

[clonadmad]

Anyone else hear the stories coming out from Camrose that D. Dooley was asked not to hurl in the Leinster by management in the wake of the controversy. Seemingly this has led to a players revolt in a "if he doesn't play we won't either" standoff... Hardly ideal preparation for a Leinster run.

A run in Leinster 😂😂😂

If by some fluke they fall over Gorey,they then in all likelihood run into Ballyhale,I'm looking forward to them starting it with the Mullen's and the Fennelly's

[HURLING1]

We don't see many flukes for Laois clubs in the club championship.
Think we have only had 1 win in the last 10 year's by all the various clubs.

[LOVEGAA]

Anyone else hear the stories coming out from Camrose that D. Dooley was asked not to hurl in the Leinster by management in the wake of the controversy. Seemingly this has led to a players revolt in a "if he doesn't play we won't either" standoff... Hardly ideal preparation for a Leinster run.

I'd find this very hard to believe. They are too arrogant to care and after winning the appeal I don't imagine they care what anyone says.
does anyone really believe this story?

[portlaoisekid]

Anyone else hear the stories coming out from Camrose that D. Dooley was asked not to hurl in the Leinster by management in the wake of the controversy. Seemingly this has led to a players revolt in a "if he doesn't play we won't either" standoff... Hardly ideal preparation for a Leinster run.

A run in Leinster 😂😂😂

If by some fluke they fall over Gorey,they then in all likelihood run into Ballyhale,I'm looking forward to them starting it with the Mullen's and the Fennelly's

cracking post

[SpeculativeEffort]

I'd say Danny Owens cannot wait to get out of there.

[clonadmad]

DENIS WALSH

october 28 2018, 12:01am, the sunday times

Camross continue violent streak
denis walsh

Club have dragged Laois hurling into the gutter again but there seems little appetite to do anything about them



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In the days after the poisonous Laois county hurling final two photographs from the Camross celebrations emerged on social media. In one of them a Camross player is wearing a hard hat and protective goggles with a hurley held across his chest in heroic pose. The caption on the post reads: "Tooth fairy does what he likes when he likes."

The other photograph, posted a day later, included the same player with two of his teammates sitting at a bar counter grinning with exaggerated smiles so that you can't miss their perfect teeth. To grasp the tasteless and provocative nature of the photographs you need to understand the context. In the county final Ross King, a Rathdowney-Errill player, had his mouth smashed by the butt of a hurley. The alleged aggressor appeared in both photographs, although there is no suggestion that he wrote the caption.

In a long, lucid and powerful interview in The Times, Ireland edition on Thursday 1King gave what amounted to a victim impact statement. Two of his teeth are dead and ongoing dental work will cost about €5,000. For more than two weeks he lived on a diet of protein shakes, mashed banana, porridge and scrambled eggs while his mouth slowly recovered; in the process he lost nearly a stone in weight. He couldn't return to work for more than a week and has missed other days since then for dental appointments.

Club shame: Ross King had his mouth smashed by the butt of a hurley during the Laois county hurling finalmethode%2Fsundaytimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2F9a123228-d93a-11e8-9dc6-a299178189bc.jpg?crop=2250%2C1500%2C0%2C0&resize=13701370x913
Club shame: Ross King had his mouth smashed by the butt of a hurley during the Laois county hurling final

"I physically couldn't speak," King said to Shane Keegan, The Times columnist and a close friend of King's. "My lips were kind of stuck together. I had no appetite, no energy and just no interest in anything."

As captain of the Laois senior team King is a well-known and well-liked figure in Laois GAA and he was touched by the amount of support he received from friends and strangers alike. "One girl sent me a medal to keep me safe," said King. "Beautiful gestures. But you still can't help feeling low and you are drained mentally. I'm over a lot of the physical side but the mental side I don't feel anywhere near over it. I don't feel that justice has been served after all that's gone on. It's just insulting."

The incident happened as part of a greater melee after which a couple of players were booked but nobody was sent off. Darrell Dooley, the Camross player who struck King, was yellow-carded for another offence in the melee but not for hitting King. When the referee confirmed this to the Laois county board they were at liberty to investigate the King incident; the outcome was a proposed two-match suspension.

Dooley took his case to the Laois Hearings Committee and at the beginning of the week they threw out the proposed suspensions reportedly on the grounds that the video evidence was inconclusive, although no formal statement was issued. A slow motion video of the melee is easy to find on various websites, including Laois Today whose coverage of this story has been comprehensive from the start. You can judge for yourself.

The irony is that Dooley should have been red-carded for wild pulling in the melee, quite apart from the incident with King. He was also involved in a massive flare-up in the semi-final against Borris-Kilcotton in which at least four Camross players should have been sent off, including Dooley. On that occasion nobody was red-carded and the Laois county board failed to hold an investigation afterwards. Video footage of that incident has also been circulated widely on social media.

In the greater debate on violence in the GAA, especially at club level, Camross are an interesting example. When a violent incident occurs there is always a clamour for decisive action and appropriate punishments but how often are consequences equated with solutions? What does punishment achieve without reform?

Look at Camross' case history. In 1986 they played Clara from Kilkenny in the Leinster club championship, a game that became known as The Battle of Athy. Both clubs were suspended from the Leinster club championship for five years although this was reduced on appeal to three; the upshot was that Camross missed one provincial campaign.

Just three years later two Camross players were given life suspensions, later commuted to two years. One of them returned to captain Camross to win a county title. Seven years after that, in 1996, a county final between Camross and Portlaoise concluded with a free-for-all between supporters of both teams who climbed the wire to enter the field.

In 2005 a county final between Camross and Castletown was blighted by a 15-year-old Camross player being stretchered off the field, apparently unconscious and resulted in suspensions of 48 weeks and 24 weeks for two Camross players — including the stricken boy — and suspensions of 96 weeks and 72 weeks for a Castletown player and water carrier.

When the teams met again a year later two players were sent off, igniting a brawl that involved up to 20 men, including supporters; Garda intervention was needed to restore order. A Camross player and a supporter were both given two year suspensions, the clubs were fined €5,000 each and initially banned from the following year's championship. After they exhausted the appeals process, including a pitch to the Disputes Resolutions Authority, they appealed for clemency again to the Laois executive.

Independent mediation between the clubs was arranged, the fines were paid, apologies were issued, a joint golf classic was organised in the interests of harmony and the ban was essentially reduced to a suspended sentence. "We've also agreed," said Kieran Delaney, the Camross chairman at the time, "should someone step out of line, they're on their own. We won't represent them."

Has the culture in Camross changed? After they lost to Mount Leinster Rangers in the Leinster club championship last year four of their players were suspended, one of them for two years. Three of those suspensions arose from their behaviour towards match officials.

There may not be a club in the GAA which has attracted more sanctions than Camross and yet bad behaviour has haunted them from one generation to the next. Dooley should have been suspended for his strike on King; Camross should have been hauled over the coals for their part in the semi-final melee. Instead they have dragged Laois club hurling into the gutter again. The Laois county board have been weak and they must carry their share of responsibility.

But without cultural change, nothing changes. Have Camross tackled any of their players about their behaviour in recent weeks? The club secretary was unavailable for comment yesterday.

[High Fielder]

I don't think these articles are helping at all. The CB were compromised by the referee and the video evidence. At that point, they were snookered and they should have known it. They erred by imposing the ban and giving Camross more fuel. Instead, they should have paid Ross Kings bills and communicate with him only. He is the only victim in this incident and raking up Camross' past serves only to isolate them as a club. That is in nobody's interest. The aggressor will get his come uppance when he's on his knees looking at a classy forward after skinning him. The scoreboard hurts far more than any belt you can get.

[Giovanni]

I don't agree. The problem is that the classy forwards end up getting exactly what Ross King got for being classy. You simply can't allow thuggery to prevail. The long term future of the game depends on it.

[LOVEGAA]

In reality Dooly shouldn't even have been playing the final.

If he keeps getting away unpunished he will just continue until there is an even more serious incident

[Ogie]

A great piece by Denis Walsh that should be read far & wide, showing the culture & tradition in Camross.

[Don Draper]

I don't think these articles are helping at all. The CB were compromised by the referee and the video evidence. At that point, they were snookered and they should have known it. They erred by imposing the ban and giving Camross more fuel. Instead, they should have paid Ross Kings bills and communicate with him only. He is the only victim in this incident and raking up Camross' past serves only to isolate them as a club. That is in nobody's interest. The aggressor will get his come uppance when he's on his knees looking at a classy forward after skinning him. The scoreboard hurts far more than any belt you can get.

I've have broken bones and the likes, I'll take watching a fella puck a score any day of the week.

[Zooming around]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. They're not worth a f**k to Laois. They are nothing but trouble and should be fenced off back into Offaly where they came from.