Oisin McConville will be a notable absentee once again from the Crossmaglen team for Saturday's Armagh SFC semi-final replay against St. Patrick's, Cullyhanna.

The former Armagh All-Ireland winning forward missed last weekend's drawn clash after receiving a retrospective four-week ban for alleged verbal abuse of a referee during a recent Monaghan league game, and will once again be confined to the role of spectator in Silverbridge on Saturday evening after his appeal was thrown out.

McConville was coaching Monaghan junior side Toome at the time and only realised there was a problem when he received a letter.

"Immediately I sought a hearing thinking that nothing would come of it. But in the meantime I had spoken to the referee who said I had verbally abused him," McConville told The Belfast Telegraph.

"I asked if I had used foul language and he said 'no'. I might have been raving and ranting at my own players, but I can't recall saying anything to the referee.

"I don't have too many years left playing football and all this stuff is breaking my heart as I never had any previous disciplinary problems. I'm certainly not in the business of abusing referees."

The prolific forward believes the GAA can learn a lot from rugby with regard to improving communication between players and referees.

"There the referee explains every decision. In GAA if you question a referee's decision you are likely to get a booking.

"But whereas in rugby there's a much better understanding between players and the referee, in the GAA it's very much a case of them and us," he added. Tweet

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