St. Ronan’s will be in the pot for the King and Moffatt junior football championship 8th/9th place playoff draw, scheduled to take place tomorrow evening, following a ruling by the Roscommon CCC this week which confirmed their standing as the third-placed team in Section A of the championship.
When the group games were completed, St. Brigid’s topped the group with three wins from three, while St. Michael’s finished second with four points. Boyle and St. Ronan’s were tied on one point each, with both teams also tied on scoring difference (minus 26 points) and having drawn their game against each other.
St. Ronan’s were deemed to have finished in third place in the group on total point scored (37 v 29) however Boyle disputed this outcome, as they felt that the result of their final group game against St. Michael’s was incorrectly recorded. Referee Vivian Hardiman submitted a result of St. Michael’s 3-9 Boyle 0-10, however the Abbey Park club argued that their final tally should have been 0-11, which if correct, would have put them through as the third placed team.
Boyle GAA submitted an appeal to Roscommon’s Competitions Control Committee (CCC) accompanied by video footage, citing that while Mr. Hardiman had the half-time score at 0-6 to 0-4 in favour of St. Michael’s, they believed that the correct score would have been 0-6 to 0-5.
However by rule, a result cannon be appealed, only ‘any decision made by a Council, Committee-in-Charge or County/Provincial Convention’, according to Rule 7.11. When the matter at issue is a result, or the awarding of the game according to a referee’s report, instead an objection must be lodged in accordance with rule 7.10. Because Boyle submitted an appeal as opposed to an objection, Roscommon CCC ruled their appeal out of order.
Following conversations between the relevant clubs and the Roscommon CCC, a playoff fixture between Boyle and St. Ronan’s this evening in Cootehall was discussed, however this fixture will not be taking place and so the CCC is going to conduct the draw between the three third placed teams (St. Ronan’s, St. Dominic’s and Western Gaels) tomorrow evening. One of the three teams will be drawn straight into the quarter-finals, while the other two will play off next weekend to secure a place in the last eight, alongside St. Brigid’s, St. Michael’s, Kilglass Gaels, St. Joseph’s, Pádraig Pearses and Roscommon Gaels. Meanwhile Boyle will now meet Elphin in a relegation final, as St. Barry’s, who finished bottom of section B, cannot be relegated as they are a first team.
Both the relegation final and the playoff fixture are expected to take place next weekend (September 25th/26th), with the championship quarter-finals the following week, subject to avoiding fixture clashes with the senior hurling championship semi-finals where possible.
