Diarmuid Connolly has the described the 12-week ban handed down to Dublin manager Dessie Farrell as “extreme at best”.

Dublin GAA banned Farrell for three months after news broke that a number of the Dublin players had broken Covid-19 restrictions by holding a training session at Innisfalls GAA club.

The GAA has since moved to issue Farrell with a fresh 12-week suspension, meaning he will miss the All-Ireland champions’ entire Allianz League campaign.

While Connolly said that Dublin have “absolutely made a mistake”, he also feels that there had been “a huge overreaction” to the news of the training breach.

“Dublin made a mistake, they’ve apologised for it and they’ve accepted the responsibility,” Connolly told Boylesports.

"There does have to be a sanction put down, but Dessie Farrell has taken a 12-week ban which is extreme at best. And with all that is going on in the media at the moment, a GAA team training with nine people was front page news and I don’t think it warrants it, it was a huge overreaction.

“I’m not trying to make light of this either, there are restrictions in place and the whole country has been in lockdown for a long time.

"Dublin have absolutely made a mistake here, but as much as they are portrayed as robots, they are human and they make mistakes like everybody else. They have accepted responsibility now and hopefully we can move on quickly from this.”

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