Former Laois chairman appointed to high-powered national GAA committee

Former Laois GAA chairman Gerry Kavanagh has been appointed to the GAA’s national Central Appeals Committee (CAC).

Kavanagh, who was Laois GAA chairman from 2013 to 2017 and served in a number of Other roles prior to that, is Laois’s current representative at Central Council, the GAA’s highest body in the association.

He was appointed to the CAC by the new president Larry McCarthy following Saturday’s virtual annual congress and will serve on that committee for the duration of McCarthy’s presidency.

The committee will be chaired by Matthew Shaw, a solicitor from Westmeath who has a long involvement in the GAA’s various disciplinary committees.

In the complicated area of GAA discipline, the CAC is the last option when appealing a suspension prior to going to the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA).

The Central Competitions Control Committee (CCCC) propose a suspension in the first place which if accepted is the end of the matter. If not, a hearing can be sought with the Central Hearings Committee (CHC), who have the authority to uphold a CCCC sanction, increase it, decrease or overturn it altogether.

If they player doesn’t get the result they want their next port of call is the Central Appeals Committee (CAC). This body’s role is simply to uphold or quash a penalty or to send it back to the CCCC for review – in essence they are the appeals court.

The last resort for a player is the Disputes Resolution Authority (DRA) which has a strong legal element to it.

Its presence means cases involving suspensions can’t find their way into the courts of the land without a visit to the DRA first. The thinking is that the court would be highly unlikely to overrule the DRA should it go that far.

The GAA held their annual congress on Saturday when the main decisions taken saw the introduction of a Black Card sin bin and automatic penalty for a cynical foul that prevents a goal-scoring opportunity inside the 20-metre line or the ‘D’. The rules will be trialled in this year’s intercounty championships.

It was also decided to adopt the ‘split season’ approach which will see the All Ireland finals in both hurling and football played by mid July each year, with club championships only beginning now after they have been completed in full.

This won’t lead to a huge change for Laois, however, as that has been the case since 2008. The key difference now is there will be no situation where the Laois championships could be delayed if the county team get an extended run in the All Ireland series.

SEE ALSO – County Final Memory: Significant success for Arles as they win intermediate in 1999

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source https://www.laoistoday.ie/2021/03/01/former-laois-chairman-appointed-to-high-powered-national-gaa-committee/