BALLYBODEN ST-ENDA’S player Declan O’Mahony will tonight go before the GAA’s Central Hearings Committee in an attempt to overturn suspension and be free to play in the All-Ireland club final on St Patrick’s Day.
O’Mahony was shown a red card earlier this month in Ballyboden’s semi-final win over Clonmel Commercials but is making an attempt to be eligible to play in the decider against Mayo’s Castlebar Mitchels.
Ballyboden manager Andy McEntee believes the tackle ‘looked an awful lot worse than it was’ and is hopeful O’Mahony will be cleared to play.
“I wouldn’t like to pre-empt anything but I think if you do look at it and look at it often enough you do realise that these two guys met and Declan was probably just half a yard off it being a really good tackle.
“It looked clumsy, he is six 6’ 5”, the guy he was tackling was 5’ 10” – I think it looked an awful lot worse than it was.
“If you slow it down it is actually a chest high tackle rather than a neck high tackle.
“A couple of higher tackles than that were punished with yellow cards in the other semi-final. I thought at the time he could have got away with a yellow or a black.”
McEntee illustrated the tough situation O’Mahony currently finds himself in.
“He’s training but it’s difficult for him.
“For a guy who has grown up with this club and has been such a huge part of the team for such a long number of years, it is a difficult prospect to face missing out on a match like this.
“So hopefully it will work out in his favour.”
Ballyboden finalise their preparations this weekend when they play a Dublin league game against St Judes.
In addition Robert McDaid and Colm Basquel both emerged unscathed from last weekend’s Sigerson Cup weekend action with UCD.
