Comparisons between Brennan and McGuinness 'irrational'
June 03, 2026
Referee Fergal Kelly red cards Dublin's manager Ger Brennan and Galway Strength & Conditioning coach Cian Breathnach McGinn at the start of the second half of the Allianz FL DIvision 1 game ©INPHO/James Crombie
Jarlath Burns says comparing Ger Brennan’s ban to Jim McGuinness not being punished for a similar incident is ‘irrational’.
The Dublin manager is currently serving a 12-week suspension arising from an incident with Galway S&C coach Cian Breatnach McGinn over 10 weeks ago, but there is a feeling of injustice in the capital after Jim McGuinness avoided a similar ban following a flashpoint with Diarmuid O’Connor during Donegal’s win over Kerry last Saturday week.
However, the GAA president has pointed out the difference between the two incidents was that Brennan was shown a red card.
"What we stress is very important in our association is that once you give the referee a whistle and send him out to referee a match, we are not going to re-referee the game," Burns said on RTÉ Radio 1's Morning Ireland.
"It's just giving the position to the referee that whenever he goes on, whatever is in his report is sacrosanct. In the second game, the Donegal-Kerry game, the circumstances were different. When we read the referee's report, he had referred to it and that was enough.
"He had decided not to suspend anybody, not to send anybody (else) off. So there is a difference there and we have to respect that difference. The referee is the sole arbiter of what happens during the 70 minutes."
He added: "It's just trying to explain to people that the sole arbiter of what happens on the pitch is the referee and it is not the remit of the Central Competitions Control Committee to re-referee a game.
"Otherwise, you would be forced to go back over every incident that happens and say, the referee saw that or he didn't see that or did he see it? And remember, there's a fourth official there as well who also has citing ability and in the shemozzle, if you want to call it that, at half-time in the Kerry-Donegal match, all of the officials were there, they saw it.
"And whenever the CCCC imposes a sanction, they have to make sure, is this going to be robust enough that it will pass at hearings, appeal and DRA? And there was a feeling there that at a hearing or at an appeal, that it wouldn't go any further. And I think it's more embarrassing to lose something like that at a hearing."
Tweet
