BY KIERAN McCARTHY
WHILE Barryroe’s appeal to Cork GAA against their elimination from this season’s Carbery Junior A Football Championship was not successful, the County Executive ‘strongly’ recommended that the club be reinstated in the competition.
The Carbery JAFC is currently on hold after Barryroe requested DRA arbitration following their unsuccessful appeal to the County Executive against the Carbery Board.
All four quarter-finals of the championship, scheduled for this Sunday and Tuesday, have been postponed.
Barryroe missed out on a place in the quarter-finals after finishing third, on scoring difference, in Roinn 1. They finished on the same points (4) as both Tadhg MacCarthaigh and Argideen Rangers who progressed to the last eight.
The issue is, however, that Barryroe was handed a walkover against Bandon. It meant that the Carbery Board excluded Argideen Rangers’ and Tadhg MacCarthaigh’s results against Bandon in the final table, and Barryroe missed out on scoring difference.
The Southern Star understands that Barryroe’s grievance is that the club was not informed how, in the event of a three-way tie, scoring difference would apply to decide the final placings. They appealed their elimination to Cork GAA, which was heard on Wednesday, August 24th in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. While that appeal was unsuccessful, the county executive strongly recommended, and ‘in the interest of natural justice and fairness’, that Barryroe be reinstated in the Carbery JAFC ‘ by means of a play-off’.
The Southern Star also understands that a meeting was then held in Enniskeane on Thursday night in an attempt to find a solution, but the issue could not be resolved.
Carbery GAA released the following statement on Friday morning: ‘Following the Carbery Board's decision to follow General Rule in confirming Tadhg MacCárthaigh and Argideen Rangers as qualifying from Roinn 1 of the Carbery junior A football championship, the Barryroe club appealed this decision to the Cork County Executive. The Barryroe appeal was not upheld, and as a result, the Carbery Board are progressing with the junior A football championship, which is now at the quarter-final stage.’
But when Barryroe then requested DRA arbitration, the 2022 Carbery JAFC was put on hold late on Friday night.